Empathy – real empathy – is a mysterious phenomenon. The poet Walt Whitman wrote, “I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.” It is reasonable to ask whether we have the capacity to truly tune into other people’s experiences, particularly when they’re traumatic. Perhaps we get closest […]
This I Believe
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This I Believe New England – Miracles
The nineteenth century novelist Joseph Conrad once wrote, “My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel—it is, before all, to make you see.” And that is exactly what this public radio series aims to do. Featured essayists stitch together […]
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This I Believe New England – On The Side of Love
It’s a truism, isn’t it, that life is filled with ups and downs, twists and turns, tugs to the right when we were planning to turn left. One measure of a life is how we cope with adversity. The poet Mary Oliver wrote, “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took […]
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This I Believe New England – Fellowship In Disagreement
It’s no secret that we are surrounded by passionate, partisan, and divisive political and ideological debate. Our daily news and social media are saturated with all manner of vitriol and vituperation. Many of us, perhaps most of us, yearn for more civil discourse, where we can agree to disagree agreeably. The ancient Greek playwright Euripides got it right: […]
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This I Believe New England – Hospice Care
It may seem all too hackneyed to say that death is a mysterious, often anxiety-producing, subject. The truth, of course, is that so many of us struggle to wrap our hearts and minds around the meaning of dying and death. When will I die? How will I die? Will I have the opportunity to choose to die […]
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This I Believe New England – Falling Back
Seasons, especially the shift from one to the next, are complicated. For some, the shrinking daylight and chillier air are filled with foreboding. But others of us relish the changing solar and lunar dance. As Mark Twain wrote, “I think that to one in sympathy with nature, each season, in turn, seems the loveliest.” For Leigh Vincola, it’s […]
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This I Believe New England – Small Packages
Vincent van Gogh once said, “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” Let’s hear Mike Fink’s reflections on the value of all things small. Mike Fink is a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.
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This I Believe New England – Aphasia
All of us encounter setbacks in life—some small, some medium, some super-sized. The unsuccessful job search. The long-term relationship that did not end well. The disappointing test results. We hope, of course, that we have the resolve to weather the sorts of unbidden storms that arrive in our lives. And that’s precisely what we hear from Michael Obel-Omia, whose inspiring […]
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This I Believe New England – From Prison To Stage
Many listeners have been mesmerized over the years by the trials and tribulations of former Providence mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci. Our beloved Trinity Rep has brought this story to stage in the play The Prince of Providence. One of the lead actors is a Providence native, Erick Betancourt, who has his own compelling story to tell. Erick […]
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This I Believe New England – Staying Alive
It’s no secret that the news is saturated with disturbing and disquieting reports of suicide. The statistics are downright frightening: Between 1999 and 2017, the suicide rate in the U.S. increased 33 percent. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death for people ages 35 to 54, and the second for 10- to 34-year-olds. Of course, underneath these […]
