"Optimism is an elected attitude, a form of emotional courage. It is a habit that can and must be learned if we are to survive as artists. So often, 'things' look so bleak. The book doesn't sell. The play is not produced. The audition goes brilliantly but the part goes to someone else. In order to survive such disappointments, we must master optimism, not as a form of denial but as a deeply rooted faith that we are somehow partnered in ways that we cannot see. We must look for the silver lining, knowing that there always is one.

"As artists, we must cultivate faith. We must learn to see beyond appearances. We must trust that there is something larger and more benevolent than the apparent odds stacked against us. For the sake of sheer survival, we artists must learn to have a deep and abiding belief in our own work and its worthiness, despite the world's apparent acceptance or rejection. As artists, we have a vocation. There is Something that 'calls' to us to work. In answering that call and making art, we keep our side of the bargain. Our efforts will be rewarded, although not perhaps in the ways that we had planned.

"As artists, we must be in it for the long haul, not just the showy seasons of success. As artists, we are subject to cycles of acceptance. There will be bleak seasons and fruitful seasons. There will be successes and there will be failures. We cannot control the reception of our work. We must find our dignity in the doing. We must learn to say that our work, even if unsung, does count for something.

"There is dignity in the act of making art, no matter how that art is received. Much of the best work I have ever written has never been published or produced. Faith tells me that there must be some reason for that that I cannot yet see. I cling to my faith and turn aside bitterness. I work although my work has come to 'nothing.' I have whole novels that haven't yet sold. I have fine plays that have seen no productions. My artist's faith tells me to keep on writing, that there must be a way, and a reason, to keep on keeping on. Faith allows for a career to take detours. Faith allows for a career to even grind to an apparent outward halt. Faith takes, always, the longer view. It divorces our creative practice from its current reception.

"As artists, we must be resilient. Delicate as we are, we must also be stalwart. We must take our cue from the natural world and vow to be like the perennial flowers, stubbornly reappearing season after season. There is some simple dignity that lies in the labor of doing the art for art's sake and not for the glory and acclaim that we hope will accrue. I am a writer and writers write. Every day that I write, I am keeping my side of the bargain.

"There are many days when I do not 'feel' like writing. These are the days when I tell myself I have nothing to say, the days when I want to say, 'Oh, what's the use' and count my thwarted art as the reason I do not go on. 'Why try? It will come to nothing anyway,' I catch myself thinking.

"On those days I write anyway. Such thinking is the rim of the glass of despair. Despair is the poisonous drink an artist cannot afford to even sip. In order to go forward on these days, I must be willing to be small, not large. I must be willing to write from a spirit of service, to write simply because writers write. It does no good to demand to always be brilliant. That demand is an instant prescription for writer's block. No, in order to write, I must be willing to write badly and to have the faith that if I go forward 'writing badly,' some purpose is still be being served.

"We are creations and we are intended, in turn, to be creative ourselves. Like the fruit trees, we are intended to blossom. The trees put forth their froth whether there will be admiring eyes or not. So, too, we are intended to flower in our art even if our art does not meet with a welcoming reception. We must make art for the sheer sake of making art. That is being true to our nature. That is being true to our path."