Old?

POSSIBLE SIGNS OF SATANISM, according to the Glendale Police Department in 1989: drawing monsters, playing D&D, "poetry about suicide," "speaking in riddles," "a sudden change to dark-color clothing"—and, of course, keeping a Satanic journal https://t.co/WRuwQJaw0p

— Jesse Walker (@notjessewalker) April 19, 2022

1989? Old? I was 34. My daughter hadn’t been born yet. I remember that “Satanic panic” distinctly.

 I’ve mentioned before that I had a pair of leather sandals with leather Peace ☮️ signs decorating them. The mother of one of my peers (I don’t remember her otherwise; we were at a mutual friend’s house) held me in conversation over them for several minutes. She was concerned for her daughter’s soul just for being in the same building as me. When she was convinced I was a Christian (but not of her church, so I was still suspect), she was concerned for my soul, too. She was convinced the symbol was ancient of origin, and Satanic.

This was at least 17 years earlier than 1989. At the time I just thought it was the peculiar corner of small-town East Texas where I grew up. I imagined the wider world was less superstitious, less poorly informed, less gullible and scared. I imagined wrong.

We still imagine life can’t really be like this. We still imagine wrong.