Awhile back I thought that one of my posts might be about lists. I was thinking in particular of a list of things I dislike. Then a few days ago I read an article in The NY Times about Susan Sontag’s memoir “Journals and Notebooks 1968-1980”.
Susan Sontag was a mentor to Patti Smith whose idea of a “book of days” I adopted to title my MAM journaling this year. Their friendship doesn’t surprise me since they are both excellent journal writers and also have had very public personas. Susan Sontag died in 2004.
At any rate Susan Sontag loved making lists and so do I. Every day I make lists of things I need to do- shopping, phone calls, people and businesses I need to contact, doctor’s appointments I need to make; and things I want to do – books I want to read, movies I want to see, concerts I want to go to, restaurants I want to try, people with whom I want to be in touch. I don’t use my phone for lists. I keep a spiral bound notebook full of them.
My father had a little black notebook he kept in his shirt pocket at all times. He even had a special kind of mini pen that fit perfectly in his pocket alongside his notebook. His lists were the opposite of mine. They were lists of things he had done or seen or heard. If my parents had an argument about what restaurant it was where he was served a shrimp cocktail with a cigarette butt in it (they were always arguing about silly things like that), he would whip out his notebook and say: “It was ‘The Sahara’ and it happened on January 28, 1963.”
Susan’s Sontag’s lists in her journals are of her likes and dislikes. The reviewer of her book thought they were quite poetic and revealing of her personality. He also said he thought that asking someone what their likes and dislikes were was a much better way to start to get to know someone than asking what they did for work. I agree with that. I never did like it when people asked upon first meeting me, what I did for work, as if my work defined who I was as a person.
But I digress…So here is a list of my likes and a list of my dislikes. Really fun to do; you might like to try it yourself.
THINGS I LIKE:
Bonfires, kayaking on a slow moving river, sunrises, moths, dragonfly wings, frogs, small children, tabby cats, long walks in the woods, Prague, lavender bath salts, the smell of old books in a used bookstore, Paris, the ocean, window seats, pocket watches, Debussy, the smell of a laundromat, clean sheets, elegant notebooks, good pens, watercolor paints, Mary Cassatt, Willa Cather short stories, lilacs, dill pickles, maple sugar candy, mimes, the movie “Children of Paradise”, American Sign Language, Brahms’ horn trio, hats with feathers, birds’ nests, having my hair cut, peeing in the woods, newly fallen snow.
I could go on and on but that’s enough for now on the likes. Now for the dislikes…
THINGS I DISLIKE:
Living alone, Lost and Founds (I feel like I spent my whole childhood there), black licorice, someone’s scratchy beard on my cheek, horror movies, hot weather, water up my nose, the smell of hyacinths, swimming in cold water, barking dogs, right handed scissors, wet sleeves, hairs in my food, fingernail clippings, heavy metal music, having to pee and hold it in and wait, neti pots, elevators, someone saying “Never mind it wasn’t important” when I ask them to repeat something they said because I didn’t hear it.
These lists are begging to be illustrated (someone did illustrate Susan Sontag’s lists) but I don’t have time tonight. Maybe tomorrow?
coppsky 