Past, Present, and Future

Finding my voice amid the noise (and a short reader survey).

A cropped version of Florentine painter Lorenzo Lippi’s Woman with a Mask.

TLDR; fill out my reader survey to determine the Future of the Stack.

I’ve always imagined living in an age when mailing letters was still prized.

I read Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note emails like an archaeologist, peering into exchanges that were not intended for me and wishing that I, too, took the time to share my thoughts on paper instead of in text messages to friends. Letters, like old photos, last, while most of our digital communications will fade as soon as Zuckerberg, Musk, or some other dark, powerful figure decides to pull the plug—or we forget to back up The Cloud.

While taking a tour through the whiskey collection in one of the Apocalyptic Cowboy’s many secret rooms some years ago, I noticed that he had custom stationery with his Christian name imprinted for the few people to whom he will allow his real identity to be revealed. I was envious and told Haley, who ordered me my own that night. I’ve yet to use any of it.

Because, for better or worse, we live in The Digital Age. And while pining for a simpler, analog past may come naturally for nostalgics, I’ve made the painful decision to no longer get so caught up looking backwards or forwards.

I’m trying to be present now.

So, from now on, these entries will look more like letters to you.