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The answer to Eun-Mee's question about faking the emotion is that some days you do. Some days you mouth you Hail Marys while your mind skims over the plots of sitcoms seen ten years before. Some days the mass is a meditation on what light does to dust in the air. But you keep showing up. You play the Bach again, you write another paragraph, you repeat the prayer. You hold on to the form through the stretches when the content has vanished. You observe the mass in all its glorious dullness. You practice. And then, in a storm in the middle of the night, all of the love comes rushing back to you. There is no reason why it left or why is should return, but it does. You play like a girl reaching into her chest to show her own heart. I write with so much assurance I feel like I am simply copying it down from some other source. And the prayers that you say - suddenly they are the rope that binds you to God.
...
Literature has a great tradition of brilliant, soulful atheists, but I think it has an even greater tradition of faith: Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Eliot and Yeats, Graham Greene and Flannery O'Connor. What is writing, after all but the ability to believe in that which you cannot see, to in the end believe in it so completely that you see it everywhere? Every day that I write it is in this secret language of faith. I cannot imagine how I will get to the end of any novel I begin. I do not know who the charatcters will become. I do not know how they will travel through their stories, how they will manage the fates I dole out to them. I nave no idea if I will have the strength or courage to complete what I have started, but I am sure of my faith. It's a little like closing your eyes and stepping forward, one step and then another and another. It is trusting that I will be able to do this thing even when I don't understand exactly what it is I am doing.

-- Ann Patchett, "The Language of Faith," included in Bearing the Mystery: Twenty Years of Image

News & Issues from the Cultural Influence Professions

William F. Buckley Fellowship in Political Journalism Beauty and stories are important to God, says screenwriter Brian Godawa, and that's why Christians should not ignore movies Kyle Patrick Alvarez's 'Easier With Practice' finds its way to screens The ‘Moral’ Bachelor The Most Important Movie of the Year Can a secular university embrace religion without sacrificing its soul?Jodi Picoult talks about life, writing 'ALICE' IS A MONSTER! $116.3M Blows Past 'Avatar' For Biggest Domestic 3D Bow That Other Government Takeover Alice in Wonderland: What’s a Nice Girl Doing in This Hole?You can't take God out of American history “Outsourcing” to the government charity Society for Cinema and Media Studies Celebrates 50 Years March 17-21 in LA Sony Pictures' David Bishop: In the thick of home entertainment's evolution Education is for long term, not just your first job New Libraries Revitalize Cities Amazon's price war Where we get the news In PBS debate on the economic benefits of more college graduates, the facts speak for themselves Student says selling their sould to the Devil assignment was inappropriate Learning From the Sin of Sodom The Basement Boys: The making of modern immaturity Some Iraq, Afghanistan war veterans criticize movie 'Hurt Locker' as inaccurate Debating the Depression: An Interview with Amity Shlaes Marilynne Robinson, Narrative Calvinist The Dude Plumbs His Weary Soul John Tenniel and the persistence of 'Wonderland'ABC News to cut half its domestic correspondents, close bricks-and-mortar bureaus Matt Stone & Trey Parker Are Not Your Political Allies (No Matter What You Believe)The Best Art Documentary of 2010 The Resurgence of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"The Civic Failure of American Higher Education A 'Cure' for Character At UC Berkley abortion debaters have agreed to disagree for 10 years ABC News to cut staff in 'transformation' of news division Married parents 'ten times more likely to stay together'Ways to Make Higher Education More Affordable What’s the Latest Academic Fad?Alice's very weird wonderland: Why a behind-the-scenes row might see Tim Burton's most fantastical film yet disappear from cinemas as fast as the Cheshire Cat

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Appreciations and critiques of cultural works and people that have had a positive influence on American culture and society but have been forgotten or falsely reinterpreted by enemies of liberty.

Reclamation is an occasional online publication devoted to appreciations and critiques of cultural works and creators from America’s past (and relevant foreign ones that have had a positive influence on American culture and society). Reclamation is a forum for serious scholarship by both amateur and professional cultural analysts, with the only requirement being that the work be original, insightful, and useful.

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Career Resources for the Cultural Influence Professions

The Glen Online

"The writer should never be afraid of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention."
—Flannery O’Connor

Welcome to the Glen Online!

One of Image’s central missions is to emphasize the importance of craft, both as an end in itself and as a spiritual discipline—concerns that lie at the heart of our Glen Workshop program in Santa Fe. Every year nearly 200 people gather at the Glen to work with some of the world’s finest writers and artists to hone both craft and vision.

Whether you can attend the Glen Workshop or not, you can now benefit from the tradition of great teaching at the Glen by pursuing excellence in your craft through the Glen Online. You’ll work under the guidance of the outstanding writers featured in the pages of Image and at the Glen.

The classes offered through the Glen Online are one-on-one encounters that can be completed at your own pace.

The Culture Alliance is creating a fresh approach to cultural renewal. TCA is a unique organization seeking to synthesize efforts toward creating a culture of liberty in the United States.

Our mission is to increase public support for America's founding values by promoting a culture of liberty and personal responsibility through individuals' informed cultural patronage and direct participation.

If you would like to find out more, read on.

To sign up for TCA's Weekly Update to keep tabs on the Cultural Influence Professions and get support in your personal efforts to renew American culture sign up here.

The Culture Alliance is a registered 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Your gift is tax deductible to the fullest extent provided by the law.

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