jblum (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jblum) wrote,@ 2008-04-16 15:46:00 |
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I saw this meme going round ages ago, never answered it, but found myself thinking about it again, because I'm in sort of a reflective state right now...
Name three things in your life you absolutely can't live without, and one thing you'd like to live without!
1) Music
I don't play my guitar or do any sort of drumming nearly often enough, since our regular jam sessions stopped being regular. But I've lost count of how many worthless days have been redeemed by walking out to lunch with the Wondermints shimmering in my ear. Or Fourplay, or grooving down the street to the sound of old T. Rex. (Or even -- obligatory plug for the greatthegameiam -- the Franchise.) The other night Stevie Wonder saved my life all over again, with that irresistable combination of the zig-zagging swing horn line in "Sir Duke" and the irresistably frisky "I Wish". Even thinking about music, and the songs I really should finally finish writing and demoing, gives me a lift from inside.
2) Sex
Or, in a less attention-grabbing sense, the whole idea of loving touch. Physical affection, intimacy, and closeness of all sorts are crucial to me... my mood just spirals downward if I don't get plenty of cuddles of various sorts. Even an innocent caress across my back speaks volumes -- that I'm being gifted, by someone who knows what I need and thinks I'm worth giving to. And when I say Kate's still discovering things that work even after a decade... this is not a bad thing. :-)
The importance of touch to me really sank in for me when my parents were down here on a visit a few weeks ago. I met them at an Italian restaurant and was just bemoaning how stressful my week had been, with work, Kate being ill, et cetera. My mother reflexively reached round the table and started giving me a back massage... and within moments I practically melted into my fettuccine pesto. A simple determined touch short-circuited all the whirling thoughts and misery in my head, and finally allowed me to relax and understand that I was safe and warm and loved.
3) Doctor Who
As with 2), this is actually shorthand. It represents a particular type of storytelling, which I discovered in childhood and have been delighted to find growing up along with me: inventive, offbeat, playful, passionate, heartfelt. Engaged with the world, whether in joy or pain, rather than cynically commenting on it from outside. It's a mindset which drives all my writing, whether related to that series or not: a deep-seated sense of spirit, of connection to the truly valuable things in life -- all the things which are too easy to lose through exposure to the workaday world. I'm incredibly grateful to the revival of this show, in its new spectacular Hugo-winning heartstring-tugging form -- proving once again that it's the bst story ever told -- for reaffirming all these connections.
And the thing I want to live without?
1) My judgmental side
Not my judgment in general, but the bottom-line aspects to it. My mother is a wonderful woman... but she has very clear mental lists of Good People and Bad People, and someone who makes it onto the latter list can expect no quarter of any kind. No matter what they do, their actions will be interpreted in the most uncharitable way possible. It's a tendency I see in fandom too, where a character who is Hated will be slammed whatever the story has them do. And I see it in myself, in the way I can be so dismissive of fans I'm arguing with, on a level beyond whether they're factually wrong.
I thought I'd be able to be more poetical and insightful about these traits, but I don't think I have the brain cells at the moment! So... this is me.
Name three things in your life you absolutely can't live without, and one thing you'd like to live without!
1) Music
I don't play my guitar or do any sort of drumming nearly often enough, since our regular jam sessions stopped being regular. But I've lost count of how many worthless days have been redeemed by walking out to lunch with the Wondermints shimmering in my ear. Or Fourplay, or grooving down the street to the sound of old T. Rex. (Or even -- obligatory plug for the great
thegameiam -- the Franchise.) The other night Stevie Wonder saved my life all over again, with that irresistable combination of the zig-zagging swing horn line in "Sir Duke" and the irresistably frisky "I Wish". Even thinking about music, and the songs I really should finally finish writing and demoing, gives me a lift from inside.2) Sex
Or, in a less attention-grabbing sense, the whole idea of loving touch. Physical affection, intimacy, and closeness of all sorts are crucial to me... my mood just spirals downward if I don't get plenty of cuddles of various sorts. Even an innocent caress across my back speaks volumes -- that I'm being gifted, by someone who knows what I need and thinks I'm worth giving to. And when I say Kate's still discovering things that work even after a decade... this is not a bad thing. :-)
The importance of touch to me really sank in for me when my parents were down here on a visit a few weeks ago. I met them at an Italian restaurant and was just bemoaning how stressful my week had been, with work, Kate being ill, et cetera. My mother reflexively reached round the table and started giving me a back massage... and within moments I practically melted into my fettuccine pesto. A simple determined touch short-circuited all the whirling thoughts and misery in my head, and finally allowed me to relax and understand that I was safe and warm and loved.
3) Doctor Who
As with 2), this is actually shorthand. It represents a particular type of storytelling, which I discovered in childhood and have been delighted to find growing up along with me: inventive, offbeat, playful, passionate, heartfelt. Engaged with the world, whether in joy or pain, rather than cynically commenting on it from outside. It's a mindset which drives all my writing, whether related to that series or not: a deep-seated sense of spirit, of connection to the truly valuable things in life -- all the things which are too easy to lose through exposure to the workaday world. I'm incredibly grateful to the revival of this show, in its new spectacular Hugo-winning heartstring-tugging form -- proving once again that it's the bst story ever told -- for reaffirming all these connections.
And the thing I want to live without?
1) My judgmental side
Not my judgment in general, but the bottom-line aspects to it. My mother is a wonderful woman... but she has very clear mental lists of Good People and Bad People, and someone who makes it onto the latter list can expect no quarter of any kind. No matter what they do, their actions will be interpreted in the most uncharitable way possible. It's a tendency I see in fandom too, where a character who is Hated will be slammed whatever the story has them do. And I see it in myself, in the way I can be so dismissive of fans I'm arguing with, on a level beyond whether they're factually wrong.
I thought I'd be able to be more poetical and insightful about these traits, but I don't think I have the brain cells at the moment! So... this is me.
