2006年NPR美国国家公共电台五月-There Is No Such Thi

I believe in the power of love

I believe that a generation of young people face more enough

I believe it deeply and sincerely

I believe in the importance of passing this knowledge along

I believe that everyone wants to love and be loved

All of these add up to my belief in the dignity of individual

I believe in people

This I believe.



Steve Inskeep: For our series This I Believe, we're asking people from all walks of life to compose statements of personal belief. So far more than 13,000 have responded. On this Memorial Day, our essay comes from Jason Sheehan, a food critic from Denver, Colorado. Here is our series curator, independent producer Jay Allison.



Jay Allison: Jason Sheehan heard our series on his car radio and told us he liked the concept because for many people, belief is just a nebulous clutter 1 of half-held convictions, but the process of putting them down on paper helps cement those few things a person truly believes, the core of a principled life. He also noted 2 that the subject of his belief was sitting on the seat next to him in two plastic bags. Here is Jason Sheehan with his essay for This I Believe.





After listening to the results of this project for several weeks, I knew I could do three minutes, too. Certainly not on world peace or the search for meaning in an increasingly distracted world or anything as grave and serious as all that, but on a belief just as true.



I believe in barbecue. As soul food and comfort food and health food, as a cuisine 3 of both solace 4 and celebration. When I'm feeling good, I want barbecue. And when I'm feeling bad, I just want barbecue more. I believe in barbecue in all its regional derivations, in its ethnic 5 translations, in forms that range from white-tablecloth presentations of cunningly sauced costillas, to Chinese take-out spareribs that stain your fingers red, to the most authentic 7 product of the tarpaper rib 6 shacks 8 of the Deep South. I believe that like sunshine and great sex, no day is bad that has barbecue in it.



I believe in the art of generations of pit men working in relative obscurity to keep alive the craft of slow smoking as it's been practiced for as long as there's been fire. A barbecue cook must have an intimate understanding of his work: the physics of fire and convection, the hard science of meat and heat and smoke -- and then forget it all to achieve a sort of gut-level, Zen instinct for the process.



I believe that barbecue drives culture, not the other way around. Some of the first blows struck for equality and civil rights in the Deep South were made not in the courtrooms or schools or on buses, but in the barbecue shacks. There were dining rooms, backyards and roadhouse juke joints 10 in the South that were integrated long before any other public places.



I believe that good barbecue requires no decor, and that the best barbecue exists despite its trappings. Paper plates are okay in a barbecue joint 9. And paper napkins. And plastic silverware. And I believe that any place with a menu longer than can fit on a single page -- or better yet, just a chalkboard -- is coming dangerously close to putting on airs.



I believe that good barbecue needs sides the way good blues 11 need rhythm, and that there is only one rule: Serve whatever you like, but whatever you serve, make it fresh. Have someone's mama in the back doing the "taters" and hush 12 puppies and sweet tea, because Mama will know what she's doing -- or at least know better than some assembly-line worker bagging up powdered mashed 13 potatoes by the ton.



I believe that proper barbecue ought to come in significant portions. Skinny people can eat barbecue, and do, but the kitchen should cook for a fat man who hasn't eaten since breakfast. My leftovers 14 should last for days.



I believe that if you don't get sauce under your nails when you're eating, you're doing it wrong. I believe that if you don't ruin your shirt, you're not trying hard enough.



I believe -- I know -- there is no such thing as too much barbecue. Good, bad or in-between, old-fashioned pit-smoked or high-tech 15 and modern; it doesn't matter. Existing without gimmickry, without the infernal swindles and capering 16 of so much of contemporary cuisine, barbecue is truth; it is history and home, and the only thing I don't believe is that I'll ever get enough.



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Jay Allison: Jason Sheehan with his essay for This I Believe. If you would care to summarize your personal philosophy as Jason did, please visit our website at npr.org where you can find information about submitting your writing. You can also read and hear all the essays in our series. For This I believe, I'm Jay Allison.



Steve Inskeep: Next Monday on Morning Edition, a This I Believe essay from Attorney and Public Radio listener Michael Mullane of our consult.



Steve Inskeep: Coming up this Memorial Day, the story of a military Barber Shop Quartet who performed during the Korean War. That's just ahead on All Things Considered.



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Memorial Day : 美国对阵亡战士的纪念日(每州不同, 一般为5月30日)

nebulous clutter : 朦胧，混乱

half-held convictions : 将信将疑，模棱两可，似是而非