The Present Indicative, 6 January 2026
My Current Mood: Resolutions
The platform remains free (and worth it) but in case you’re feeling philanthropic, I’ve set up a subscription page!
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?
-Robert Burns
Happy New Year! I hope you wrapped up 2025 with a ribbon and no regrets leading into 2026. I spent the last two weeks with family and friends, and friends that are family. We even had merry revelers participating in Jólabókaflóð stop by on Christmas Eve to give books and receive distilled beverages in place of wassail.
But it wasn’t all bourbon, books, and brotherhood of man. I had time to create and contemplate, both for myself and for Indicate Marketing. We’re now past the first quarter of the 21st century. Three-quarters to go. And if I want to make the most of what I’ve got left then I’ll need more than vitamins and venture capital. Quality, not quantity. That means I need some good New Year’s resolutions.
Less Inspection, More Introspection
“Judge not, that ye be not judged,” quoting Jesus via Matthew. Whatever your perspective (pro or con) on the poor, the meek, and the merciful, let us all consider ourselves overly critical of others without considering ourselves.
I blame social media, but I won’t blame social media. Enough with the blame! I want to observe the awful world and make it better by making myself better. To lead by example. To show, not tell. And while I’ve never been too tangled in the world wide web, I’ll let other flies get eaten by the SEO spiders, while I soar in the moment of myself. “Look at the birds of the air…”
More Construction, Less Obstruction
You’d think that the opposite of construction is destruction. Not true. As Elie Wiesel famously said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” Well, in order to create we must destroy, but neither is possible when tied up in committee, bureaucracy, and red tape. And that’s just my neurological predisposition.
Last year (I’m talking 2024) a local calligraphy studio ran a holiday card contest. I saw the announcement after Thanksgiving, and began to conceive of a design, but I quickly talked myself out of the contest based on work, life, priorities…the details. I was spinning wheels with the car in park.
This past year (2025) I put my eye to the horizon and my foot on the throttle. They ran the contest. I saw the announcement after Thanksgiving, and spent time to reach my concept. I submitted the week before Christmas, and learned last week that I took second Honorable Mention! I was not sure how calligraphy in watercolor would turn out, and then reverse it by hand for the back of the card…but I did not sweat the details. You can judge for yourself.
Less Monologue, More Dialogue
Mind you, creativity only goes so far in a popularity contest. My wife posted about the holiday card on Facebook, and so began a grassroots effort to support my submission. I owe my success to her, and anybody else who voted for my design.
But whatever the vote, or reason behind it, people had the freedom of choice. And choice is a threatened species in the 21st century. We need to self-reflect, we need to self-express, but if this world is going to get any better it also needs to apply these choices with a healthy dose of listening.
Too many people want their own island, and modern technology lets each of us think we have it. But we don’t. That is the playground of poets…
It is a poet’s privilege and fate
To fall enamoured of the one Muse
Who variously haunts this island earth
-Robert Graves
…and the rest of us need to get along and save what’s left for the future instead of squander the present. Be introspective. Be creative. But connect your ears to your mouth and ask people what they need in order to learn what they value.
More Philanthropy, Less Misanthropy
I have a healthy number of memberships. The YMCA. The MFA. NARM. I also participate in charity when the opportunity presents itself for the benefit of those who need more than I want.
I want to support the missions of those that provide value beyond money. I want to hate the close-minded greed of others. But I can’t open minds with hate. My mom used to say you should not assume, because “to ASSUME makes an ASS out of U and ME.” In the first part of the first episode of The Future Indicative, Matthew Josefowicz explained how building relationships doesn’t start with your innate value but the inherent needs of others.
…if you’d asked people what they wanted, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to articulate that. So doing the research in your primary target, doing ground up research, in your primary target market, not making assumptions about what’s good for them or not trying to figure out what you want to build and why that’s good for them. But really starting from your target audience and saying, What is it that they need in the area that I’m prepared to fulfill?
I’m ready to ask that question in 2026. Our mission remains the same: to show what great narratives accomplish for your industry. With a back catalogue of creativity and conversations we now turn to asking what is your area of need? And how can I help?
Meanwhile the platform remains free. I’ve set up a subscription page for those willing and able to support this platform as a public service, but I intend to keep everything public. And if we continue to build community, who knows. Maybe I can offer tote bags like PBS. Wouldn’t that be a cup o’ kindness yet…
For auld lang syne.
In Related News…
Speaking of charities (and people named Matthew), The Future Indicative begins 2026 examining the world of nonprofits. Next week’s episode features Matt Burriesci, Executive Director of the Providence Athenæum. Matt has spent his whole career working with nonprofits, and advocates for their support as their services provide for our common wealth. At the end of 2025, Matt noted some troubling numbers.
I was reading the SMU DataArts Report from the Rhode Island Foundation that details the crisis in the cultural sector. You always have to be careful with statistics because very few of these studies are conducted with real statistical rigor. But in this case, I think it’s broadly accurate.
It reported that 70% of cultural institutions in Rhode Island ended fiscal year ’23 with a deficit which sort of comports with what’s happened all over the country. American Alliance of Museums and TCG both had reports saying that 70-80% of theaters and museums in the country entered fiscal year ’25 with a deficit, and we’re already halfway through ’26, which will end June 30th.
There’s a massive, massive crisis in the cultural sector. Sort of the largest in my lifetime, and I’ve lived through a lot of them. I started my career right after Mapplethorpe, and then the dot-com crash came, and then the great financial crisis, and then obviously COVID. And this is orders of magnitude worse than all of them.
If you’re looking for a resolution, support your local nonprofit! And if you want to get ahead of our conversation, then consider these sources:
Letter from former president Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey (6 January 1816)
“People will come” speech from the movie Field of Dreams
“Elementary, Dear Data,” from Star Trek: The Next Generation
Dead White Guys: A Father, His Daughter and the Great Books of the Western World, by Matt Burriesci
Wassail!
Alex Effgen