Who are We?

Chris Stevens

Episode 4.10, "Crime and Punishment"

Who is Chris Stevens? Who are any of us? Are we one person fixed at birth? Do we grow like a snowball coming down the mountainside of life, or can we change, shed our skin? A caterpillar becomes the butterfly, leaving the remains of his former self behind.

I look at my yearbook photo--Wheeling Central Catholic High School, Class of 81--and I wonder who that stranger is. Damned if I know. Maybe that's the point, maybe we're not supposed to know, maybe that's what this earthly joy ride's all about. Like Robert Frost said,

We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.

[Chris reads Frost's poem, "The Secret Sits," from the collection, "A Witness Tree." You can find the poem in The Poetry of Robert Frost]

Woman, Lovely Woman

Chris Stevens

Episode 4.12, "Revelations"

Well folks, I've just come back from my short cruise on the river of spiritual renewal. You might be wondering, were my goals met, did I have that transcendent moment, the epiphany? You bet I did. You know, we men, we're always booking out, we join armies, frat houses, baseball teams--in my case, a monastery--all to the exclusion of our fair sisters. I'll tell you something, in that segregated, celibate world of men, a divine hand reached down, grabbed me by the belt strap and gave a hard yank. And to whom did this awesome hand belong? Woman.

That’s right, Cicely, my metaphysical moment, my revelation, was this: for me, there can be no spirituality, no sanctity, no truth without the female sex.

O woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee
To temper man: we had been brutes without you:
Angels are painted fair, to look like you;
There’s in you all that we believe of heaven,
Amazing brightness, purity and truth,
Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

[Chris reads from Jaffeir’s first scene with Belvidera in Venice Preserved, a Restoration drama by Thomas Otway. You can browse an on-line version or buy your own copy.]