The Leaves Have Turned But All Is Green
There Is Still Time To Look Ahead, There Is Still More To Do
There is so much left to do, this year is not done, far from it. It’s only done, even after it becomes “last year”, when we’ve half-forgotten it. There is time.
There’s always time to write to all of you, to say that I hope you’re well and that this day has been good, and that if it has been hard to wish it gets better.
I have been up to my shoulders, past my shoulder-blades, and then up to my ears in re-writes and edits. In fact, that’s my day to day, I’m taking a small break to write this. I feel guilty about “cheating” on the book whenever I do anything else that involves text, but nobody’s perfect.
It has been glorious, quiet, unglamorous and I am grateful. I’m giving it my all.
The first novel, which my friends Jim, Michael, Nick, and Dylan have generously supported, is coming along. I owe them so much, and I don’t mean just about the editing and the business of it but even more for their friendship. The draft I wrote has changed. The baby has gotten bigger, better, and stronger.
That’s part of the reason why I don’t write weekly pieces, essays, or serials (there are serialized parts of the second and third works shared) so when I do, it’s either a very short but heartfelt piece, or some big brain idea that just wouldn’t let go, and I would “have” to try to get it down like kale or castor oil.
I burden you with either silence or a surfeit of words, and for that, I apologize.
I wish I could delight you with something great, that was easy to read, made your day better, and gave you something that you could use. I am trying but the ideas sometimes won’t let go. But what I give, I give with all of me freely.
(I have an idea involving Jevons and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, maybe.)
Some, perhaps most of you, are new, and you come to me by way of accident or recommendation. I’m going to do an informal riff of a recap.
“From The Future” is about the future by way of the past. I write “imagine pieces” as well fiction, and they tend to overlap or bleed into each other. A lot of my fiction is informed by my curiosity, and vice-versa. They’re twins, joined at an invisible hip of ideas.
I’ve written about history, technology, mythology, and believe it or not, they help me think about money, economy, and society in my private life and among friends about trends of “things to come”. Send me ideas if you wish.
If you are new, below are some links to a few pieces. Quite often the piece I send is rewritten as soon as I hit send - there’s always room to explore and experiment, not just for improvement but also to uncover new things to learn.
The Books My Father Bought For Me
My Dad’s life was nothing like the one he gave me, which included books. He set me on a path I didn’t realize I was on. Only now, do I see where it all began. If I could only have thanked him more for it.
Over the past year, I bought books of all kinds for Mom, because she wouldn’t buy any for herself. I realized from what Mom shared with me as she read them was that my love of books came from her. I have since bought more books for her.
I want to feel like how I wish we could feel all the time, that “We can do it”.
(One request, pretend you’re hearing the actor Sam Elliot read this, if you wish.)
The Optickal Phantasies of Utopia and Dystopia
This is as close as it gets to a “think piece”, inspired by Isaac Newton and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. It’s a big riffing essay. I might have killed some readers with it but it couldn’t be helped, the ideas would not let go of me.
(I tested Notebook LM on it, it made a funny pseudo “podcast” summary.)
This is by far my favorite “imagine piece”, with a bit of myth, tech, John Donne, and Jim Morrison. I had a wish idea for living notebooks about whatever we read, write, and care about, and a year later it’s real.
Recently, there’s new software that is doing what I imagined was possible, where our writing “talks” with us. The “Notebook LM” is an early demonstration of what I hope will be Living “Commonplace Books”.
We get pulled by so many distractions, and I wondered in this “imagine piece” about how our “Age of Distraction” finally comes to an end, with our interests.
Our Imagination Is A Camera Of The Mind
This was so much fun to write, we get into art and photography, and go from Edwin Land (of Polaroid) to Warhol. We begin with a song from Santigold and end with a great video of Edwin Land talking about the “Future”!
Thank you to all who signed up and gave this letter a try. I will do my best.
I write with the help of music. The music helps me see scenes and words, sometimes it’s the other way around.
Here is a playlist cued to the current outline of the novel, an outline of feelings.
I’m going back to work on the book, wishing you all a great week ahead.
There is always time for what You NEED/MUST Do.