Hi friends!
Sometimes, a good quote feels like a friend. It tells you what, deep down, you want to hear and believe. And to think that it’s true.
A quote that did that for me today was, “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” — Alexander Den Heijer. To me, this quote seems good to hear, but I also believe that I have personally helped ‘fix’ the “flower” by addressing my internal state through reflection and developing my mind through intellectual pursuits and conversations—much like this one.
Overall, there is power, comfort, and questioning in writing.
But in the age of AI, do people even want to write anymore? I certainly do. Because I connect with you all through writing, and the way that words can meld together to inspire action and love is so damn inspiring to me. MLK Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, for example. And, upon studying 20th Century World History this year, I now better understand the influence of propaganda and the stories we tell. I want to make those stories that serve people. To use rhetoric to uplift, not constrain, as I have seen in my history course.
But my concern with the life of prose is this: given the “Law of Least Effort” in economics, which suggests that people naturally seek the path requiring the least energy, why would people want to write when generative AI exists? Of course, AI loses that “human” tone to writing, and in itself needs human writing to function and create its opinions. But is there enough passion left to drive people to still write—and write in a way that improves humanity?
I feel inspired by “TikTok poetry” creators like @raeganspoetry and others. I love that people scrolling on TikTok take a break from the dopamine chases, swiping endlessly, and instead listen and relate to the struggles or joys communicated through poetry. But I do wonder—why do so many of these poems revolve around love and the beauty standard? It’s understandable, of course. These topics consume a lot of space in our minds, especially as young women. But is there space for more? Are we engaging with words in ways that make us think beyond ourselves?
Maybe that’s why I love writing so much. Because when I write, I’m not just a flower trying to bloom—I’m also tending to the soil, choosing what to plant in my mental garden. What to think about, what to call out.
So, let’s not forget that our growth isn’t just about who we are inside, but about the environment we cultivate around us. AI might generate words, but it can’t generate the soul behind them. We have the power of the human voice. Let’s use it to speak through writing.
With my love,
Meredith