My wife Nicole has been listening to some fascinating CDs lately.

It's a presentation titled "I Believe," where they ask a lot of people -- both famous and non-famous -- to sum up their philosophy of life in one sentence beginning with the words "I believe ..."

It's interesting. Colin Powell, for one, said "I believe in the United States of America." I'm sure many people who either immigrated here or whose parents did feel the same way, and I'm equally sure that those of us whose families have been here a long time probably tend to take it for granted.

My lovely wife, an immigrant from France more than 20 years ago and a U.S. citizen for the last 10, takes great pride in calling herself an American. In fact, when people notice her accent and ask her where she's from, she responds with one short sentence.

<em>"I'm an American."</em>

[caption id="attachment_26" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="And in the end ..."]<img class="size-medium wp-image-26" title="abbeyroad-frontcover" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/abbeyroad-frontcover-300x294.jpg" alt="And in the end ..." width="300" height="294" />[/caption]

Her sentence was one that says so much about her. In spite of all the things she has been through in her life, the sentence she came up with, the thing she has always believed, was "I believe in the goodness of life."

Mine was relatively easy too. In fact, the thing I strongly believe is something the Beatles said all the way back in 1969 on their wonderful album "Abbey Road."

They said it this way:

<em>"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."</em>

In fact, except for the goofy little ditty "Her Majesty" that ended the album, that line was the last line of lyrics ever put on a Beatle album.

So I won't say it exactly that way, because that would be trite. The way I would put it means the same thing, but it isn't about "taking."

I believe that the love you get from others is equal to the love you give.

It doesn't always work out the same for each person in your life. There are some people who love us more than we love them, and vice versa, but when all is said and done, I think it comes out about even.

Loving people are loved by others.

It took me a long time to become one of those people. I know I got a lot more love from my family growing up than I gave back, but I think maybe it was balanced out by all the girls I thought I loved when I was young who didn't even know I existed.

But in the end, the love you take <em>is</em> equal to the love you make.

It's really that simple.