i stumbled onto a file of old graduation and baby announcements from friends gone by. i went through them all and decided to keep four pieces out of about 50 different invites and announcements.
Many of the babies and kids I didn't even fully recognize. We were living a lot of lies, telling ourselves these were good relationships, people we should be "investing" in. You wouldn't do this sort of stuff unless you'd been told for years it was the right things to do, the holy thing, what God wanted. It felt good to throw things away and just get a little further from that life of fallacy and self-denial.
It was also nice to remember the kids we're still connected to and stumble onto those and tuck them into the journals I keep year to year. Not all a loss then, this look back to when I was saving everything and following in my family's footsteps of creative hoarding.
*****
We had a real date tonight. We went and saw Black Panther then had some drinks at a great place down from the theater.
Black Panther met and beat all my expectations and is as good as everyone says it is. It's too good on too many levels to really every try and dissect here. I will say that seeing a movie staffed by 95% black people was beautiful and regal. I loved the underlying themes of community, tribe, respect, elders and belonging, honor. The characters were well-developed, nuanced and complex.
I will be thinking about this story and movie for a very long time.