I Want To Live For

I Came To A Clear Conclusion, And It Is A Universal One: To Live, To Struggle, To Be In Love With Life--in Love With All Life Holds, Joyful Or Sorrowful--is Fulfillment. The Fullness Of Life Is Open To All Of Us.

...the Reading, The Observing, The Living From Day To Day. It Was Something That Had Been Born Into Her And Her Only - The Something Different From Anyone Else In The Two Families. It Was What God Or Whatever Is His Equivalent Puts Into Each Soul That Is Given Life - The One Different Thing Such As That Which Makes No Two Fingerprints On The Face Of The Earth Alike.

Because The Child Must Have A Valuable Thing Which Is Called Imagination. The Child Must Have A Secret World In Which Live Things That Never Were. It Is Necessary That She Believe. She Must Start Out Believing In Things Not Of This World. Then When The World Becomes Too Ugly For Living In, The Child Can Reach Back And Live In Her Imagination.

It's A Beautiful Religion And I Wish I Understood It More. No, I Don't Want To Understand It All. It's Beautiful Because It's Always A Mystery. Sometimes I Say I Don't Believe In God And Jesus And Mary. I'm A Bad Catholic Because I Miss Mass Once In A While And I Grumble When, At Confession, I Get A Heavy Penance For Something I Couldn't Help Doing. But Good Or Bad, I Am A Catholic And I'll Never Be Anything Else. Of Course, I Didn't Ask To Be Born Catholic, No More Than I Asked To Be Born American. But I'm Glad It Turned Out That I'm Both These Things.

New York! I've Always Wanted To See It And Now I've See It. It's True What They Say-- It's The Most Wonderful City In The World.