I'm writing this bc I have been meaning to blog since like 2019, and now is an okay time to start. I actually wrote a manifesto of sorts in high school - a poem that was an attempt at thinking through what I believe and what I want for myself and how I want to interact with others. I think it's increasingly rare that people are asked/have the opportunity to express or explain their beliefs, versus pointing to proxies like media or political parties - not that those aren't useful as touchpoints or mutually understood examples, but that there's something different about saying "I believe that xyz (because abc)..." Like the example that comes to the top of my head is reciting the Nicene creed ("I believe in one God...") at mass, which is obviously limited to those Christian denominations which have that + on top of that is often its own rote proxy and not a fully intended statement of purpose. So an attempt at distilling some basic truths: