Matthew Wayne Selznick

My friend has a birthday today.

I met her when we were teenagers. We fell in teenage love. It was heavy and full of drama and my tendencies toward martyrdom meshed nicely with her mental illness. We were a manga soap opera before any of us knew of such things; we were a Terry Moore graphic novel and she was Francine and Katchoo both depending on the day and where her brain chemistry was.

We had adventures.

As we grew older and miles separated us, I often worried about my friend. Her adventures away from me took place in Adulthood, where things are more dangerous and the implications, longer lasting. She did amazingly strong things that I’m still so proud of, and she made the kind of mistakes we all make. I celebrated her triumphs and fretted over her defeats.

She sent me letters boobytrapped with glitter and confetti.

Finally, entropy contributed to our losing touch with one another, and a misunderstanding reinforced that. It was years before the Internet brought us back in contact.

Lo and behold, my friend is alive and well. She’s a poet and an artist and so brilliantly creative I wish I could take a thimble of her productivity and down it like a shot. There’ve been a few more tragedies, and a few more triumphs, and this person I met when we were half as old as we are now has become one of the strongest people I know.

And today’s her birthday.

And I wanted to tell the world that, and also that she’s an inspiration, and a gift, and I love her.

So happy birthday, tigger-eddie-cydniey. It makes me happy, knowing you’re out there — and that’s your gift to me.

Did you get my email????

Cydniey Buffers is an outsider artist, spoken work queen, and crafty person. She’s also been my friend for ‘pert near half our lives, which is something, isn’t it?

Check out her latest stuff available for sale on E-Bay, and remember that you’re supporting someone who makes her living making art — which is also something, isn’t it?

Here’s Cyd’s LJ entry about the bracelets.