When Did Everything Get So Damn Impersonal?

We automate thank-you emails.

We schedule birthday posts.

We have groceries dropped at the door without ever seeing another human being.

And God forbid someone actually calls instead of texting first.

Apparently that's terrifying now.

I Miss People

I miss people stopping by.

I miss handwritten cards.

I miss knowing your neighbors well enough to knock on their door.

I miss bringing somebody dinner because life kicked their ass that week.

I miss invitations that someone actually took the time to write.

I miss sitting around a kitchen table talking about absolutely nothing important and somehow remembering that conversation twenty years later.

I miss people doing things simply because they thought of somebody.

Not because it was their birthday.

Not because Facebook reminded them.

Not because there was an obligation attached.

Just...

Everything Is So Damn Convenient Now

We've built an entire world around making sure we never have to be inconvenienced.

And again, I'm not giving up grocery pickup.

Let's not get crazy.

But human relationships are inconvenient sometimes.

People need things at bad times.

They talk too long.

They show up when the house is messy.

They need rides.

They need help moving.

They need somebody to listen to the same story for the fourth time.

Sometimes showing someone you care takes more than clicking a button.

A handwritten note takes longer than a text.

Dropping something on someone's porch takes longer than sending an emoji.

Making cookies takes longer than DoorDash.

Sitting with someone who's struggling takes longer than writing, “Let me know if you need anything.”

And Now We Have AI

And yes, I'm fully aware of the irony here.

We have AI writing emails.

AI writing birthday messages.

AI planning weddings.

AI creating pictures of lives we aren't actually living.

AI can probably write a perfectly lovely sympathy card in about four seconds.

Technology can make life easier. It can help us create things, organize things and save time.

That isn't the part that bothers me.

Because I don't think people are craving more polished.

I think we're craving more real.

More evidence that another human being stopped what they were doing for five minutes and thought:

Maybe You Miss It Too

Maybe that's why this has been weighing on me so much.

Because I don't think I'm the only one who misses it.

Maybe you miss knowing your neighbors.

Maybe you miss getting real mail that isn't a bill.

Maybe you miss family dinners where nobody was staring at a screen.

Maybe you miss people showing up without needing a reason.

Maybe you're tired of everything feeling like a transaction.

Because underneath all this convenience, I think a lot of us are lonely.

We have hundreds of Facebook friends and nobody to call when we need someone to help move a couch.

We know what people ate for breakfast but haven't sat across a table from them in two years.

We are more connected than we have ever been technologically...

and somehow sometimes feel less connected to actual people.

I Think That's What Suds & Buds Has Been About All Along

When I started Suds & Buds, I thought I was starting a business making products.

Soap.

Tallow.

Shower steamers.

Things I enjoyed creating and things I wanted my own family using.

And those things still matter.

But somewhere along the way, I realized the products aren't really the whole point.

Maybe they never were.

Because the thing I keep coming back to isn't soap.

It's:

A gift is just the physical proof.

The note is proof.

The package sitting on the porch is proof.

The scent, the wrapping, the little details someone chose because they knew you would like them...

all of it says the same thing:

And I think people need more of that.

Hell, I need more of that.

That's why this business keeps evolving into something bigger than products for me.

It's becoming about connection.

Thoughtful gifting.

Gathering people.

Family.

Community.

Helping people remember the people they love before another year flies by and they realize they meant to call, meant to visit, meant to send the card...

but never did.

So Maybe This Is Our Little Rebellion

Maybe in a world obsessed with faster, easier and more automated...

we become a little inconvenient again.

Buy the gift because you saw it and immediately thought of someone—not because the calendar told you to.

Maybe we don't have to accept that everything has to become colder, faster and more impersonal.

Maybe there are more of us out here missing the way things used to feel.

Not perfect.

Not some Pinterest version of simpler times.

Just...

And maybe we start bringing some of that back.