I’ll believe in anything.
I used to live by that sentiment, appropriated from the title of a Wolf Parade song, either because of the lyrics or the music or my world around it when I’d listen to it most. Its message of connection and celebration, built around healthy vulnerability and unconditional trust, fed into the days and nights and lost weekends of the past. I still wonder where are my friends tonight, and more and more the answer is somewhere else.
Now I still believe in ‘I’ll believe in anything’, but the phrase has evolved over the years, at one point meeting up with The Hip and turning into ‘I can get behind anything’. This means I’m up for whatever, ready to experience, sometimes blindly. But this seemed too loose, almost uninformed. Then I went too far the other way, with the unsustainable, ‘I believe in everything’. The expression has since steadied itself as my current perspective. Right now – ‘I’ll believe anything’.
There is a level of gullibility implicit in the new meaning, but that trait’s been disparaged for too long. Being able to accept what someone communicates to you, if it’s expressed with sincerity, is admirable and worthwhile, but still all too rare. It shows respect and appreciation for a different viewpoint.
Keep an open mind, learn about someone else’s values, assuage the fear of there being an alternative to what you were absolutely certain you knew. See what they see.
Listen. And not as you’re already considering a rebuttal. Really listen. You never know what you might find out.
I hope we can all agree that none of it is real. We’re only here for the stories, so hear them out.
Negativity and objections are a barrier to sympathy, to togetherness, and they only serve to keep everyone in their own bubble. They deter relationships, preventing constructive interactions, keeping strangers from becoming friends.
When I was younger, when my beliefs were a little more rigid, I was high in cynicism. I quickly invalidated many practices without working to understand why they exist. If Mercury is in retrograde, and this stimulates miscommunication, I want to know it, and I want to believe it. If the Major Arcana cards keep appearing, I will ready for some life-changing events.
I yearn to be on the side of the conspiracy theorists. Sure the Earth is flat. This makes sense to me, why it’s comforting to people, and I can take something from that. Besides, if the scientific community is right about everything, then that includes how the world is now irreversibly fucked, and as a powerless person, acknowledging this is discouraging and pointless.
All religions are correct. All of them. All forty tales from the afterlives accurately Sum up what can happen after death. And the forty-first, my own, applies to everyone too. No matter what happens, I won’t be surprised.
I honestly don’t always know if I’ve grown more tolerant, but I definitely became more interested. Please, tell me. What do you have to say?
I’ll believe anything.