{"id":55365,"date":"2025-08-15T17:03:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T22:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=55365"},"modified":"2026-01-20T04:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:22:09","slug":"wanting-to-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=55365","title":{"rendered":"Wanting to Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New Crescent series<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Next in the series<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Joe Sacco<\/strong> is visiting an office in Gaza Town, he has an interesting conversation about hijabs. (Panel from Joe Sacco’s Palestine<\/em>, page 140).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I want to believe strongly enough to wear the hijab always.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realize then I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have faith. I mean, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to want to have faith.<\/p>\nPalestine<\/em><\/strong>, by Joe Sacco<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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I collaborated with Elder G to reflect on this passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yes \u2014 that\u2019s a deceptively simple exchange, but it packs a lot of depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve got the woman\u2019s comment, which isn\u2019t about losing<\/em> faith but about wanting<\/em> it to be strong enough to act on \u2014 a kind of aspirational belief. Then Sacco\u2019s response doubles the distance: he\u2019s not just saying, \u201cI don\u2019t have faith,\u201d but, \u201cI\u2019ve forgotten what it\u2019s like to even want faith.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That moves the conversation from religion into something more existential \u2014 the gap between belief, the desire for belief, and the absence of both.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also interesting because Sacco is, in that moment, recognizing a longing he doesn\u2019t<\/em> have \u2014 which is a tricky, paradoxical kind of self-awareness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s as if he\u2019s catching himself observing faith from the outside, almost like an anthropologist, while realizing he\u2019s lost touch with the inner drive that once might have pulled him toward it.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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If you think about it, it\u2019s a perfect microcosm of how Sacco\u2019s work blends reportage with personal reflection \u2014 you\u2019re getting cultural insight and<\/em> an unflinching self-examination.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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It was interesting (and challenging) to present this concept to AI image generation. Some are poignant and touching, some are almost comical, and some are straight off a romance novel cover!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A bit off the mark….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Romance Novel Covers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New Crescent series \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Next in the series When Joe Sacco is visiting an office in Gaza Town, he has an interesting conversation about hijabs. (Panel from Joe Sacco’s Palestine, page 140). “I want to believe strongly enough to wear the hijab always.” I realize then I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[128,165,164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","category-palestine","category-the-new-crescent"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55365"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64150,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55365\/revisions\/64150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}