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Change Is The Only Constant

Last Sunday I put on a party to celebrate my son’s high school graduation. Unbeknownst to him I’d put together three 20′ x 30′ posters - all collages of photos from his childhood. Normally he would find this sort of thing incredibly embarrassing. Thankfully he attended several friends’ graduation parties the weekend before his and now views this as an annoying yet acceptable thing for a parent to do. Especially after a number of his female classmates showed up and gushed over the pics.

Creating the posters was an incredibly emotional process. So much nostalgia! All the feelings! And wow, this kid - like many of his generation - has had a well documented life. Only a handful of photos were ever taken or printed from my childhood and most are yellowing and faded. While I worked on this project I happened to catch an episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast and that got me thinking about timeslice errors and the stories we tell ourselves. It makes sense that our brains aren’t machines, storing perfect copies of memories. Rather those memories can change each time we access them and be colored by information we’ve learned since or how we’re feeling at a given moment. Although this doesn’t apply in the same way to traumatic memories. I find it all fascinating.

Five Good Things for Mid-Week:

  • Since winter finally ended I’ve been outside as much as possible. I already have a ridiculous tan line on my feet from my hiking sandals (it makes my feet look filthy). But this weekend we’ll be indoors a bit when going to see The Incredibles 2. Our lives were so very different in 2004, when the first one was released.
  • Over the last two days the world has been fascinated by a wayward raccoon in our very own Twin Cities: High-Climbing Raccoon Finally Reaches Top Of St. Paul Skyscraper And America Exhales. My pal Danielle is from MN but lives in Rome. She watched the hand-wringing raccoon situation unfold along with the rest of us, and created some art! It can be purchased on a t-shirt or a tote bag.
  • Northern Spark is this weekend. Organizers are changing things up and making it two nights, from 9:02am - 2am, instead of one night from dusk until dawn.
  • In the Dark season 2 has been riveting, but also infuriating! So much systemic racism. And yes, I realize that’s everywhere but dang. This case. Makes me want to slap some sense into the District Attorney and juries and some witnesses from all six trials. Everyone should be listening to this podcast.
  • We missed Open Streets Lyndale last weekend, because of grad party prep, and that was just blocks from home. But there are still loads more coming up in other neighborhoods. Summers in Minnesota are filled with activity. I’m particularly excited by the Bell Museum’s grand opening but that’s the same weekend as a cool event up on the Iron Range. Dilemma.
Party mode?
Parker's graduation party

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