On being is brought to you by the John Templeton Foundation,

harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest and most perplexing questions facing humankind.

Learn about the latest discoveries in the study of forgiveness, generosity, and free will at Templeton.org.

As a long time civil engineer by day and poet by night,

the Cuban American writer Richard Blanco

has straddled the many ways a sense of place

merges with human emotion to form the meaning of home and belonging.

In 2013, he became the fifth poet to read at a presidential inauguration,

also the youngest and the first immigrant.

At Chautauqua, I invited him to speak and read from his books,

The wit and the deep thoughtfulness and elegance of Richard Blanco's poetry and his person

captivated the crowd. The most recent and very resonant question he's asked

by way of poetry is how to love a country.

We hold these truths to be self-evident.

We're the cure for the hatred caused by this fear.

We're the good morning of a bus driver who remembers our name,

the tattooed man who gives up his seat on a subway,

where every door held open like a smile.

When we look into each other's eyes the way we behold the moon,

we're the moon with a promise of one people.

One breath declaring to one another, I see you, I need you, I am you.

I'm Christa Tippett and this is on Beeing.

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