I believe that every person has a unique voice. By a "voice", I mean a way of doing things, a style of living among other people. I believe that one of the purposes of life is finding one's voice. I believe that one of the misdirections in life is worrying too much about how other peoples' voices sound.
I believe that a voice can be expressed in a hundred thousand ways. One can write, or sing, or dance, or do other creative activity. But I believe that voices are heard in ways far beyond the conventional arts.
I believe that one can find one's voice in one's work. I believe that one finds one's voice in the way one loves.
I believe that voices get off pitch sometimes. I think that envy, jealousy, violence and despair can send a voice down the wrong path. I believe in a right and a wrong. The right encourages all the disparate voices in some universal choir to ring out. The wrong chokes off voices, through want, violence or despair.
People can train their voices. They can eliminate the dross, the imitative, the things that keep them marching, to paraphrase Thoreau, to drummers different than the drummers they hear. I believe that if there is any danger in finding one's voice, it is a belief that one's voice can be found by excess, indulgence or rebellion for rebellion's sake. A singing voice finds itself by singing, by practice, and by discipline. One's own voice finds itself by patient application.
The voices inevitably all join in song at once. No matter how much one wishes or tries to sing alone, one is inevitably part of a universal set of voices. It is part of the human experience. This is not a cause for dismay, any more than a plant feeding on photosynthesis is a cause for dismay. It's part of the way things are, and it's not a hindrance to singing. Sometimes one has to cover over one ear, to hear one's own pitch among the sea of voices. But in the long run, one finds one's own harmony. One seeks one's own truth. I believe in objective truth and objective grace, but the meaning of the terms is an individual experience. I believe we are saved by joining our voices with the unison of voices.
I believe that every person has a unique voice. One of the purposes in life is to hear as much of the human chorus as time permits. This can be done in a trip of ten thousand miles, or in an easy chair among friends. I believe in the elimination of material want, the creation of equality of living and expression, and in using one's voice with compassion. I believe that one of the purposes of life is finding one's voice, and listening as others find theirs. I believe that all the voices, when truly attuned, will create new waves which will resonate and vibrate in ways yet undreamt. I believe that each small voice is one component of this chorus, and each is capable of adding to the melody. I believe in the elimination of despair, the triumph of science, and the endless availability of grace. I believe in one voice, and in many voices, and in the unison sound of five billion voices.