After almost 15 years on The Public’s Radio, This I Believe – New England draws to a close this week. Frederic Reamer shares these final thoughts on the series.
This I Believe New England
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This I Believe New England – Muddling Through
Years ago famed sociologist Erving Goffman wrote about a concept he dubbed “impression management.” Goffman’s thesis was rather simple, yet quite elegant: People have a tendency to manage the impressions others have of them. Sometimes our efforts are designed to convince other people to like us, hire us, vote for us, marry us, or maybe […]
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This I Believe New England – Dawdling
So many of us, perhaps all of us, do our best to cope with the rush of life. The pressures and pace seem relentless, the push to move it, move it, move it! Race to pick up the kids on time! Check those text messages! Get that final draft in by noon! And on and […]
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This I Believe New England – Stories
Every one of us has a story – make that lots of stories – that define who we are. There are those life-altering events during childhood, perhaps our first love or our first heartbreak, or the stories that come out of our adult lives that are so very complex. You may recall Maya Angelou’s powerful words […]
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This I Believe New England – Gender Identity
Identity. It’s such a simple word—a mere eight letters and four syllables. But packed within this word is all manner of complexity and challenge. From our earliest moments on planet Earth, we begin to sort out what we mean to the people who matter to us the most, and then we spend years, sometimes decades, […]
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This I Believe New England – Conflict and Loss
Life is full of contradictions and inconsistencies, often in those moments when we yearn for clarity. As the author Scott Turow noted about our efforts to grapple with uncertainty in the stories of our lives, “The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.” Issues that appear, at first glance, to be […]
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This I Believe New England – Ride the Bus
Several years ago, political scientist Robert Putnam wrote a compelling book with the intriguing title Bowling Alone. Based on tens of thousands of interviews, Putnam astutely argued that over the last quarter century Americans have been living much more fragmented lives. We sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations, know our neighbors less, meet with […]
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This I Believe New England – End of Life Reflections
Dying, of course, is a universal phenomenon. Witnessing a loved one’s decline, especially when it’s slow, is often filled with anguish. It’s so hard to let go, and it’s so hard to be a bystander to suffering. But, for some, the process of dying is also filled with opportunity—opportunity to say goodbye, opportunity to appreciate life’s sweetest, even […]
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This I Believe New England – Heroes
If we’re fortunate, we have genuine heroes in our lives. Some of our heroes may be extraordinary, people whose spectacular feats defy comprehension, perhaps a citizen who risked her life to save total strangers from a burning house, or navy seals who rescued children trapped in a remote cave. Sometimes heroism is much more quiet […]
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This I Believe New England – The Right Side of History
So many of us are facing hard truths about racism in our country – both its painful legacy and its disturbing contemporary manifestations. Cascading headlines are filled with grievous evidence that the challenge is deep and wide. We want to feel hopeful, of course, that this poignant moment in our nation’s history will bring about […]
