I love small details. I even have a whole section on this blog devoted to minutiae. I recently told friends that some of those tiny things are, I believe, hugely telling about who someone is (for example, I love to ask what people, if they’re married, have engraved inside their wedding bands). I think often of the Gail Godwin quote, which I’ve written about before, that “the more you respect and focus on the singular and the strange, the more you become aware of the universal and infinite.”
I don’t know whether our preferences are innate, learned, or some amalgam of both. Some of them probably fall into each category. I know that Grace and Whit, who are growing up in the same kitchen, have strong views on certain foods that are almost entirely opposed. Which would argue, of course, that we are born with our biases (at least towards food).
Things I love:
the smell of laundry
books
flowers, especially peonies, ranunculus, parrot tulips
the mail (I still get ridiculously excited when I hear the mailman on the porch)
libraries
playground swings, bobbing in a pool, or skating circles around a rink (repetitive activities that I find soothing)
the smell of pipes (reminds me of childhood)
the Quiet Car on the Acela
the words luminous, archipelago, inelectuable, ineffable
Christmas carols
chocolate
Things I do not love (and I don’t say hate, because my grandfather used to say, “takes an awful lot of energy to hate”):
black jelly beans
flat gladiator sandals
broccoli
salmon
listening to the radio while driving with other people (or, frankly, often, alone)
strong lotion/soap/candle smells (Bath & Body Works is one of my nightmares)
the smell of cigarettes
rap music
fruit desserts of any kind
I’m curious, what are some things you love and some things you actively dislike?
