Ah, gentle reader. It was just last-last month (September) when I made a thing which was essentially cutting the logo off of an old sweatshirt and putting it into a shadowbox and putting it on my office wall. I explained the inspiration:
So, inspired by something my mother-in-law did for my oldest, who outgrew a child’s gi. She cut the logo from the back of the jacket and framed it. He still has it in his room somewhere–he has inherited an instinct for cluttercore interior design from his father, so it might not be visible at first glance, but it’s somewhere in there if I recall.
I have had the equivalent gi from my youngest in my master bedroom closet for a damned long time as well, thinking I would do the same for him. As part of DeReifiedPotentialation, I’ve been working through some things in the closet. I’ve donated some, but DeReifiedPotentialation involves a lot of throwing things away. But the gi logo for the youngest? Since I am somewhat of a shadowboxer, I am tempted to do the same thing for my youngest. I’ve spared the gi jacket for now, moving it into my office for now, until I DeReifiedPotentialate my office again.
I am kinda torn about it. He’s been away from Martial Arts USA for six years now, preferring BJJ when I cosh him on the head and drag him to it (not a lot during the current uncomfortableness). He’s not sentimental. It would not be something for his grandmother, just his dad.
I’d cut out not just the logo, but a bit of fabric to capture his achievements. The school awarded stars to the really young kids for good behavior in and out of the school and then patches with words on them for certain achievements. He was the last kid to wear a gi with stars because he was small for his age, and we got him a big gi, so he was still wearing the same jacket for a long time after the cut-over. Note how some of the patches have fallen off–the stars were sown on by his grandmother, but many of the badges were attached with adhesive which did not handle years of laundering well.
So I’m tempted to spend another $10 on a shadowbox just in case. Will I? I’m not sure if I’ll mention it on the blog if I do. Is it worth two blog posts?
