My new favorite thing as of today: collecting stranger's old family photos! The Thing in Greenpoint is a big old store full of literally crap: piles and piles of random photos, postcards, and letters from estate sales of everything from a butt at an office Christmas party to a couple of married art teachers you wish you could sit down with and have tea, and let them tell you how to unleash the fire inside yourself and to have another cookie. It's amazing because they pretty much keep the photos together from when they were acquired, so you are looking at someone's 5th grade class photo and then a note they wrote to someone in a high school typing class, and then a string of weepy never-sent "I still love you but this isn't working" letters. You're taking this beautiful tour through someone's life in a way that you could never have seen even if you knew them.
At first I was apprehensive about actually buying the photos, but then I realized how happy it made me feel knowing someone lived this. It makes the world feel very big and yet you can relate to their experiences: I have always wanted to live in the woods and be an art teacher!
Cinnamon donuts and watermelon at a birthday party? What an excellent idea! What is this cave? I want to visit that, too! Henna tattoes and a black turtleneck maxi dress? What a great idea!
Love you guys. Enjoy!
