There are a number of things that I believe in. For the record and for whatever they’re worth, here they are:

• G-d exists in some definitive form outside of human knowledge or full awareness. The presence of G-d can be felt on occasion the way a cat might walk past a mirror and get a glimpse of herself but not really know that it’s her reflection in the mirror.
• It’s quite possible that G-d was once here and, at some point, abandoned us, as the ancient Gnostics believed.
• History is very long and life is very short. It’s troubling that the present government has a strong, albeit ideologically driven, understanding of the historical past but no way to interpret it and no way to set new life and action into the world.
• Light comes from exhausted souls who seek presence in our lives.
• Human communication is necessarily frail, incomplete, and inherently tragic because everything that wants to be said to another cannot. At the same time, it’s all we have to go on and we truly should be thankful for all forms of language.
• Being surprised is one of the last forms of expressed innocence we have as adults.
• In many ways, belief is the opposite of expressed innocence; it is the internalized activity of true experience.