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Hi, everyone!

 

The idea, I've decided, is to turn 2026 into the year of the novel. 

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By that I mean a year in which we pour our energies in two different directions. First we turn to what's outside, to this world that is messed up, out of control, and quite literally a place where black is white, up is down, and each day we're told to ignore what our eyes and ears tell us. If we take a moment to turn on a TV, or perhaps just look outside the wrong window, our day begins to tilt.

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So we need to turn in the other direction, the one that leads us inside. To our own minds. Our own well-being. We have a lot of ways to get there. Exercise works for some, for others it might be meditation or yoga.

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But for many of us, the answer is art. I've worked with teenagers my entire adult life, and I've found that many of them, in times of anxiety, find comfort in art. They might draw in a notebook, or play music far too loud, or grab their guitar (or piano, or drum, or flute) and struggle to make something new. They might write poetry or  lyrics to a song. They might paint. They might sculpt. They can't stop themselves.

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For me, the answer is fiction. It's telling stories. We humans are hard-wired to be insatiable consumers of stories, and so like a lot of writers I can hardly keep myself from telling them.

 

Most importantly, though, art is by definition an act of creation. And since God is the Creator, when we make art we become, in perhaps the tiniest, microscopic way, a little bit more like Him.

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To sum up...

Art heals.

Art fosters courage.

Art teaches empathy.

Art builds imagination.

Art makes us human.

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-Mark

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