The official "This I Believe" webpage
Difference between belief and opinion?
Our Assignment:
From 1951-1955, Edward R. Murrow hosted This I Believe, a daily radio program that reached 39 million listeners. On this broadcast, Americans – both well known and unknown – read five minute essays about their personal philosophy in life. They shared insights about individual values that shaped their daily actions. The first volume of This I Believe essays, published in 1952 [the year Mr. Patton and Amy Tan were born], sold 300,000 copies . . . . Fifty years later, This I Believe, Inc, and NPR again began inviting Americans of all ages and all perspectives to examine their belief systems and write a 500-word personal essay.
The original invitation from Murrow’s broadcast show:
This invites you to make a very great contribution: nothing less than a statement of your personal beliefs, of the values which rule your thought and action. Your essay should be about three minutes in length . . . and total no more than 500 words (no fewer than 450).
We know this is a tough job. What we want is so intimate that no one can write it for you. You must write it yourself, in the language most natural to you. We ask you to write in your own words and then record in your own voice. You may even find that it takes a request like this for you to reveal some of your own beliefs to yourself. If you set them down they may become of untold meaning to others.
We would like you to tell not only what you believe, but how you reached your beliefs, and if they have grown, what made them grow. This necessarily must be highly personal. That is what we anticipate and want.
It may help you in formulating your credo if we tell you also what we do not want. We do not want a sermon; we do not want editorializing or sectarianism or 'finger-pointing.' We do not even want your views on the American way of life, or democracy or free enterprise. These are important but for another occasion. We want to know what you live by. And we want it terms of 'I,' not the editorial 'We.'
Although this program is designed to express beliefs . . . , we do ask you to confine yourself to affirmatives: This means refraining from saying what you do not believe.
We are sure the statement we ask from you can have wide and lasting influence. Never has the need for personal philosophies of this kind been so urgent. Your belief, simply and sincerely spoken, is sure to stimulate and help those who hear it. We are confident it will enrich them. May we have your contribution?
Adapted from the original 'This I Believe' series. Excerpted from 'This I Believe 2,' copyright 1954 by Help, Inc.
If this astronaut can write one in space, I think you can write one here. :)