We're excited to be participating in This I Believe, an international project that engages people in writing about the core values and beliefs that guide their daily lives.  The project is based on the 1950's radio series hosted by Edward R. Murrow.  Six books and thousands of essays later, This I Believe has formed the basis of a worldwide conversation on belief, one essay at a time.

These are hard essays to write, because they ask each writer to dig deep to identify the most closely held beliefs that form the foundation of his or her life.  It is notably not about what you think, it's not an op-ed. It's not about what you're against, but what you affirm and how it intimately plays out in your life.

In the years we've been putting together people with diametrically opposite political ideologies, it's been our experience that conversations deeper than the usual soundbytes yield surprising areas of agreement or at the very least an improbable new empathy for one's political opponents. 

These essays are profoundly human.  Both reading and writing them are transformative.

By knowing our neighbors, we've got to love them at least a little bit, sometimes despite ourselves.  And by writing your own essay, in the words of the original 1950's This I Believe invitation, you may even "reveal some of your own beliefs to yourself."  So, roll up your sleeves and give your This I Believe essay a go.  Find other essays and guidelines online at www.thisibelieve.org.  Read Lea Marshall's essay written for The Village Square HERE.

Our thanks to This I Believe for providing us our very own essay submission link online HERE.