Reminding Myself

I watched a documentary called "We Were Here" tonight - I have been wanting to see it since it was out in the theaters, but somehow, I couldn't bring myself to watch it in a public place.  It is a film with interviews and footage of the "AIDS years" in San Francisco.

It was a difficult movie to watch, but at the same time, it was such a relief to watch a movie about the things that really formed me as an adult. I was not in San Francisco at that time, but I was in Portland and watching my friends get infected and die.  AIDS was the shaper of my entry into adulthood.

One of the men described this sense of never planning for the future - just paying attention to the now because you didn't know what the future would hold.  I could so relate to that idea. It was so sad and at the same time, so important to watch that film and to know that some of those folks made it through.  I can't even imagine it being worse but I know that it was worse for so many people. I am reminded how lucky I am.