In Reason to Believe, Bruce Springsteen sings, “At the end of every hard-earned day / people find some reason to believe.” What’s your reason to believe?

Does there have to be a reason to believe? Seriously, does everything we believe have to have an explanation, a rationale? When we’re little kids we don’t look for a reason for everything. We know the sky is blue, the grass is green, and school will be out for the summer.

I’m going to take advantage of today’s writing prompt as well as the fact that today is Thursday which, in the Facebook world, means its TBT (Throw Back Thursday). It’s a chance to post pictures and such that will evoke memories of days long since gone. For a few months I’ve been trying to find something to share and the other day when I was in the basement, looking for something else entirely, I came across my school picture from kindergarten. How cute is this?

The other thing I found, from first grade, was a very faded piece of paper with a list of questions that I apparently answered, and my teacher, Sister Jean, wrote the answers. The year was 1969, so my answers seem fairly routine and reasonable for a first grader.

What’s curious about the paper as I look at it today, is the answers.  While the questions themselves are nearly gone from the page, faded from years tucked into the bottom of a box of pictures, my teacher’s handwriting looks as clear as the day she wrote it. 

Maybe I was quiet and shythen, giving only one or two-word answers, but when I look at the answers today, I see a little girl who knew what her life was about.  I didn’t need to have a reason for my answers, they were simply my answers.  I did not need a reason to believe that Steve Allen was the best show on TV, that I liked to help my Mom with the dishes, and that when I grew up I would be a nun (clearly that last part didn’t happen).  But as a six-year-old this is what I knew to be true, no rhyme or reason.

Today’s thank you is for my Mom, who held onto that piece of paper and to Sister Jean, for writing down the answers of the little girl who didn’t need a reason to believe, I just believed.

Here are the questions in order so the answers will make sense:

When you are by yourself, what do you like doing? (Play with my doll.)

What do you like best on TV? (Steve Allen)

When your friends come to visit, what do you like doing? (Play)

When the weather is bad and you have to stay inside, you like to: (Play)

What do you like to do with your mother? (Dry the dishes)

What do you like to do with your father? (Help him rake the yard)

If you could choose what we do in school, I would like to do more of: (Work)

My favorite outdoor fun is: (Playing on the swing)

What do my parents do to punish me when I misbehave? (Give me a spanking)

When I grow up I want to be? (A nun)

Believers:

• Finding Hope on a Dead End Road
• Why do you believe?
• No Map, No Problem
• Why not?
• Daily Prompt: My Testimony, My Reason to Believe