I’m putting the entirety of Scott Grill’s tweet here, for my own sake, if not for anyone else’s. Just in case he decides to kill his Twitter X account. For context, it was in response to this tweet, which simply asked of any who came across it, “I need to make some money and AI-proof my skill set. No, I probably can’t build houses. What else ya got?”
Scott’s reply:
“I wish I could help. Alas, I’m a writer in a world that doesn’t read.
“Although, I will say this… I think there is coming a day where people will feel so inundated with digital ephemera, that they will long for something that is real and imperfect yet obviously made with love and a desire to serve. They may not even be able to name that longing, but it will not be denied.
“I’ve been thinking about a quote I heard from a historian in regards to the American frontier. I don’t have his name handy, but this is what he said.
“‘Here was a place where if you had an axe and a gun and some guts, you might have a shot at some land.’
“This is the core of the American spirit, and indeed the spirit of the West. It is not raw conquering or consuming, as we’ve been told, but rather it is the indomitable desire for a home. For real earth beneath our feet and a wide sky overhead. For a place to test and try us, and having gone through that trial, it becomes a place to settle and raise up the next generation in the sure hope that spirit cannot be killed, even if is often misplaced or squandered.
“It is that sweet, sweat stained balance of work and rest that echoes our cosmic King’s own passion to bring us past the flaming gate and replant us in His garden.
“And it is a trillion dead, boring, aimless miles from the pretender’s lies that, ‘You will own nothing and be happy.’ That is nothing but a scam on behalf of those who wish to own us without any fealty to or fear of the Maker of all things.
“That is a false, chimeral image of an unachievable utopia, and they know it. Whatever proper use their may be for AI (a legit debate), know that the soul-shorn only see another set of shackles for those they wish to exploit.
“Fight them by making good and beautiful things. Fight them by happily enjoying the fruit of the land and the labor of other glad, grateful people. Whatever shape it takes, find something you care about and care for others by doing it.
“Pity those caught in the trap. Laugh loud at the schemers.
“Plant your flag, till your land, hang your shingle, train your brood, mend your fence, love your neighbor, revel in the mess of it all, sing your praises six days a week and twice on Sunday.
“Then do it all again, even if it bloodies your knuckles.
“Especially if it bloodies your knuckles.
“The need for life will never die.”
And this guy thinks he can’t write. Sheesh. Would that I be able to write like that when I grow up.
