Don’t Be Afraid, Queen

Dear E⸻

You wrote that you're spiraling. You say A.I. ruined your dreams and ambitions and erased your motivation to create art. You said you live in survival mode. I see our family in your message. I see your mother and your aunts and your uncles and your grandparents. A human mind is sparse and inconsistent. Our brains tell stories at lightspeed based on what we've lived through and on the current state of our bodies. Your brain, that is, your body, is telling you an unpleasant story. It doesn't have to be a true story. 

I understand pain, I understand fear. Understanding things does not mean bending the knee. Most people don't fight. Most people don't try. You are not one of those people and neither am I. Let us forgo loathing for love. Love and human connection—not just with one another but with our ancestors—makes you an artist. Both of those are things artificial intelligence can never have.

As artists we spill blood. Ours and other people's. Take these feelings and open a vein. Make something with your creativity.  Use your feelings to turn your everyday existence into the concentrated radiance of art. And, my love, Don't be afraid, as Mikhail Bulgakov wrote. Don't be afraid, Queen, the blood has long since gone into the Earth. And where it was spilled, grapevines are already growing.

Love,

—BD

15 Dec. 2025