{"id":680,"date":"2025-10-26T21:36:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T21:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=680"},"modified":"2026-03-16T19:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:35:30","slug":"my-favorite-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=680","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br><em>\u2026you brought me in this world<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Happy Ancestral Birthday, Mom! As I celebrate your 95th year\u2014only 68 on this side of the plane, way too short\u2014it\u2019s hard to say I miss you because, although you\u2019re not here in the flesh, I probably talk to you more than ever. I hear your voice clearly when I sit still to listen. To remember. To love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I could time travel, I wouldn\u2019t waste my time on the \u201cIf I knew then\u2026\u201d scenarios (well, maybe I\u2019d pick up a few shares of IBM and Apple). I\u2019d go back to 1965-ish, when you were my entire world\u2014seeing the essence of Black joy in your smile and laugh, in a world outside working hard to steal it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Dad\u2019s birthday, I wrote that I was thankful not only for him but even more for you being there with him in the realm, to read him the words he couldn\u2019t. You taught me the power of words, books, and being able to articulate my feelings on paper. You encouraged me to draw, to be an artist, but I was hardheaded and didn\u2019t appreciate the talent I was given. Today, I appreciate the second art form you instilled\u2014writing. One out of two ain\u2019t bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I just realized I\u2019m talking about me too much in your birthday wish; without you, there is no me. I know the party on the other side is on a grand scale\u2014you have a lot of family there with you to celebrate a queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I love you more than I can possibly express in this journal, even though you gifted me with the tools. So, I\u2019ll just say\u2014Happy Birthday, Mom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Talk to you later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2026you brought me in this world Happy Ancestral Birthday, Mom! As I celebrate your 95th year\u2014only 68 on this side of the plane, way&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"local","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blackness","category-inspirations","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackmanwrites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Momma-Crop.png?fit=528%2C460&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}