11-04-2025
Letters to Elon
Writer and mediator Lucy Moore's ongoing project writing to Elon Musk inspired writer Miriam Sagan to do the same.
Elon Musk is my muse, my writerly inspiration. He is also a chaotic, destructive, and unelected force in our federal government. Yet he has become my pen pal, if one sided. How on earth did this happen?
In this current political climate, many people I know have felt frightened and helpless. But my friend Lucy Moore, a Santa Fe writer and mediator, took a creative as well as entertainingly sarcastic approach. She says 'Elon Musk was my nemesis, torturing me day and night. I had to do something, and so I wrote him a letter…As Elon Musk asked federal employees to list 5 things they did to justify themselves I wrote him thanking him for the brilliant idea to write down 5 great things I did this week.'
I was immediately inspired. Lucy tends to send a postcard, but my hand writing is illegible and I am going on a bit more, so mine is typed. I like to mix obvious actions like philanthropy and calling representatives with a more personal take. At first my notes to Elon were pretty straightforward.
Dear Elon Musk,
Thanks so much for the opportunity to share 5 things I did last week. I appreciate your interest. Here goes:
I participated in the 2/28 buy nothing boycott.
I gave $ to Girls Inc. to support empowering young women.
I gave $ to New Mexico Coalition Against Homelessness as the HUD grants are vanishing.
I took visitors to the Indian Arts and Culture on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, to emphasize diversity.
I'm celebrating Mardi Gras because carnival is always about the power of the people.
There is more, but these were highlights. Have a nice day. I look forward to checking in next week.
Yours,
Miriam Sagan
But I did not want Elon to get bored, so I started varying things. I'm also sharing things I am refraining from. These include what I am NOT doing:
'Building a case against the situation in Washington, DC. The problems are obvious.
Bemoaning that 'no one is doing anything.' We're doing plenty.
Becoming depressed or terrified. Cui bono?
Feeling I have to come up with the perfect action. That is, not exaggerating my own importance. ( know you'll agree this isn't always that easy).
Have a nice day!'
As I write Elon each week, I feel motivated to keep doing the things I care about. I've always loved To Do lists and systems as to how to get through my day. This is a natural add-on. As Lucy says: 'You actually do 5 resistance things each week, which is better than wishing you had done something and crawling back under the bed.'
And it has been a fascinating literary exercise. After all, numerous novels are 'epistolary'—written in the form of letters, most often by one character without a reply. Often a personal diary is written to an invisible but ideal reader, as in 'Dear Diary.' As I look at the accumulating letters, I see a record of my own life as well as of the larger socio-political sphere. It helps to have an audience and a listener—even if it is Elon Musk.
Both therapeutic and micro-activism, writing Elon Musk is fun. Lucy Moore has seen more people join in and write, a group who are doing good deeds and writing '5-things-I-did' postcards weekly.
All are welcome to join. You can see Lucy Moore's letters and cards at or on her Facebook, substack and bluesky pages, where you can post your own.
