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Can't Lose the Days
The artist's journey is a race against time.

Howdy, friends! And happy (belated) new year!
Normally, the New Year brings a few emails from me recapping the previous year and setting the stage for what’s to come. But I’ve gotten quite sick since getting back from holiday travel, and the brain fog that accompanies my hacking and wheezing makes it much more difficult to get a thousand words on a page than I’d like.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t try for a couple hundred!
I’m a massive Robert Caro fan. From his exhaustive coverage of Robert Moses and the world he made to his unfinished series of tomes on LBJ, the man has had an impact on the world that few biographers could dream of.
In this fantastic interview, Caro shares the singular phrase that has propelled him to become the greatest biographer of his generation: “I can’t lose the days.”
Caro is 89 years old. He’s in a race against time to finish his final book on LBJ. He cannot lose the days. But frankly, neither can we. Any one of us, myself included, can die tomorrow. Memento mori, as the Romans say. Rather than this being a call to embrace hedonism or nihilism, this should be a call to create what we can while we can.
We hear stories so often of artists and creatives who discover their calling late in life, like this 82-year-old stained glass master. These peoples’ stories are inspiring to be sure. But do we need to wait until we’re 82 to finally start saying something of value?
As Steven Pressfield says in The Artist’s Journey:
Everything that has happened to us up to this point is a rehearsal for us to act, now, as our true self and to find and speak in our true voice.
I’ve written a bit about this mindset in the past. But I think it’s easier to talk about than to actually follow through with. Being yourself and showing up even when you feel your work — your voice — is sub-par can be brutal.
It can lead to poorly argued points, rambling jeremiads, and letters plucked straight from a fever dream that, on future reflection, will probably cause little more than embarrassment.
But that’s the artist’s journey. It’s the journey Caro has been on, that so many others have been on, and that we should strive to be on.
Because we can’t lose the days.
More to come on Wednesday about how this year will look, and what’s coming next. But until then, I hope you enjoyed the first post of 2025.
If you didn’t, well, let’s just chalk it up to the fever.
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