Dear Usha Vance

They made me write you a letter.

I am a foolish man.

I very stupidly asked you all to nominate famous people to whom I should write my next Sphere Letter.

All of your suggestions are in the comments on this post here.

This was my first extremely dumb idea because, in my heart, I find most famous people to be extremely uninteresting.

I don’t know them at all. Mostly what I see is the shell of a person or the mask that they project, which is simply an idea of who they think they are supposed to be.

How do you write a letter to someone who bores you and then make it sound exciting? This is a rhetorical question feel free to answer it in the comments.

This question unfortunately gave rise to my second ridiculously dumb idea of the day.

I decided to write a “Dear Usha Vance” letter using ASKGPT. Surely, this would be a good way to juice up the letter and put some sauce into it.

Alas, the robot was as uninspiring as Dear Usha.

I even fought to find a provocative angle. ASKGPT please write an article to Usha about women who stay quiet while men in power do nasty things.

This was all so dumb and disappointing.

I put the first paragraph of the AI-written article below. It’s extremely dull. You don’t have to read it, I wouldn’t.

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Dear Usha Vance,

Let's talk about something uncomfortable, something often obscured in the messy world of politics: the silence of those closest to powerful figures who abuse their power. It's not just about women; it's about anyone—wives, husbands, children, friends, colleagues—who choose to stay quiet while someone they know wields power destructively.

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My third dumb idea

Bad things happen in threes maybe it’s the same with dumb ideas. If you must unsubscribe from this tyranny of awfulness then I will completely understand.

Even Usha as nice as she is would stop smiling as she read this dribble. She wouldn’t say anything, though. It’s dangerous to step out of line.

This brings me to my third frivolously foolish idea of the day. To sit down and write about all of this to you.

It was only then the penny dropped, and a cold shiver ran down my spine…

There is something inhuman about a person who acquiesces, smiles, and nods while a human being close to them does terrible things or says shit that hurts people.

Something frozen, something gray, and something spineless.

Robotic even. Artificial and not very real sounding. Their voice sounds very automated and disingenuous.

They are always talking about something else and never about the real thing.

That’s why I will never use AI when writing to you. I promise.

And it’s why I’ll always endeavor to tell you the truth, use bad language, and write in my own voice with bad gramma.

Because our passions and our truths are found in our imperfections. We connect deeply through the imperfect because it resonates with our flawed humanity.

There is no life to be found in a perfectly phrased sonnet and there is no connection to be found in a face that keeps smiling as the Titanic sinks.

That’s all I have to say.

Stand up. Speak your truth. And understand that in every way it will all be very imperfect.

Was I dumb to write all of this? Let me know in the comments. I won’t be offended.