Ever since one midnight, in nineteen hundred and nine—when I frst heard my mother crying—I have been groping for beliefs to help me through the rough going and confusions of life. My dad's voice was low and troubled as he tried to comfort Mother—and in their anguish they both forgot the nearness of my bedroom. I overheard them. I was only seven then, and while their problem of that time has long since been solved and forgotten, the big discovery I made that night is still right with me—life is not all hearts and fowers. It's hard and cruel for most of us much of the time. We all have troubles—they just differ in nature, that's all. And that leads to my frst belief.