I felt like taking pictures of things I love. I did this because we moved from one very dark apartment to one with lots of windows and light. I did it because I wanted to cheer myself up. I did it just for the hell of it. I want to add more things as I think of them. But let’s start with the easy ones.
1. The Kid – I don’t celebrate the great relationship I have with my daughter often enough. Because we’ve spent most of her life together we can kind of read each other’s thoughts. She knows me really well and I know her really well. One funny thing about her is that she is a movie quoter like I am. I know lines from so many films it’s ridiculous. I might be Rain Man. But Emma and I have a few movies we can quote at each other — some of them are great movies, like A Fish Called Wanda, Ratatouille and Wall-E. But others? That Zac Efron movie 17 Again (which is kind of funny, actually), The Hangover (“I lost my tooth. I married a whore!”), The Social Network (we both know almost the whole movie by now). And a few odd quotables here and there, like from No Country for Old Men, “looking for man who recently drunk milk.” She has a similar sense of humor to me and we both find the same things funny. She has her own tastes that I don’t share, like her goth this or that. But it’s great to know her. I adore the kid. Beyond and beyond.
She’s going to be a teenager soon and then tossed out of the nest into the dangerous yet wonderful world. But for now, she’s almost 13. We measure time passing most easily by our children growing up. I think of how much my life changed when she was born and to see it in that kind of perspective, as in: it was 13 years ago when she was born. 13 years. I wish for her a happy life but if she’s going to struggle with things, let them be things that give her depth, uniqueness, character. Let her never be afraid of life, of love, of change, of growing old. Let her love her body and lead with curiosity. Ours is an unconventional life for sure. It will leave its tracks in good ways and bad ways. But if she can remain nimble-minded enough to understand and learn from the little painful lessons, she will not regret a single day.
2. Necklace
Leave it to an architect to design a beautiful necklace. This one was designed by Frank Gehry, who is, I gather, sort of a god in the world of architecture. To be able to design something so big as the Walt Disney Concert Hall and then something so tiny as this little heart — yet both catch the light in startling ways — is nothing short of what creationists really mean when they talk about “the designer.” That would be mankind, and all of our brilliant abilities. It’s easy to be awed by things in nature — so perfectly designed, giant and tiny. The grand canyon and a hummingbird. Big things on men, little things on women. Big things on women. Little things on men. The planet Earth, the moon. But it is also breathtaking to look at what we can do – what artists like Frank Gehry can do.
This necklace reminds me every day of beauty, light, clever design — and is something that feels as good to the touch as it does to look at in the light. I don’t know anything about architecture (except that I live in it) and I don’t know anything about design, but I can be moved by beautiful things. You can’t imagine how hard it is to live without beautiful things.
3. Good coffee.
It’s a cliche by now, I figure, to praise coffee. But really and truly – I have given up most vices. I don’t smoke, do drugs, drink all that much. Coffee is the one pleasure I can afford myself without feeling horrible the next morning. Although I can probably drink any kind of coffee anywhere at any time, regardless of quality if desperate enough (as in, I’ll drink the damn Folger’s instant if I have to – a sign of a true addict) I have come to prefer organic coffee. Perhaps it is just a placebo thing, like I wouldn’t know the difference. It somehow tastes better. You know, the way kosher stuff just tastes better? The power of suggestion maybe. Either way, coffee is one of the primary pulses in my life. I usually only drink it in the morning. I would lose my mind if I drank it all day long. I worry about pancreatic cancer too.
4. If you have great coffee you need a great coffee cup. These touristy cups I’ve found – one at Yosemite and one in New York are, to me, the perfect coffee cups. The size is perfect. How it feels in my hand, perfect. It holds the right amount of coffee. I only drink my coffee (unless desperate, in which case I would drink it out of the toilet bowl if need be) out of one or the other of these.
5. Soy creamer. I don’t really drink milk anymore. First, it freaks me out on principle. And again, if desperate, I will drink it. The last thing I will ever be is a fanatic about anything. If I decide to go vegan, which I very well may do, it won’t be to be one of these militant warrior vegan types. I understand protecting animals. I understand protesting factory farming. I understand stopping the thing that is ruining life on earth — factory and dairy farming. I get people are opposed, violently, to that stuff. But the ones who are warriors about it because somehow they think it makes them soldiers for the cause in and of itself? A waste of time and energy. These are the people who wouldn’t eat eggs even if they were laid by happy chickens in one’s backyard. These are people who wouldn’t kill an animal to eat one if they were starving and stuck in the mountains somewhere. Those kind of people?
Not to mention the fact that I once (regrettably) dated a vegetarian of that sort – the kind who had leather seats in his Mercedes yet couldn’t abide a bit of sausage if it fell on his plate? He was cruel to the cat we adopted, cruel to the dog I had (made me get rid of her) and never, to my mind, showed any kindness whatsoever to animals – and yet, he made this big stink about being a vegetarian, etc. Yawn. Oh, and he turned out to be a pathological lying sociopath on top of which. So you know – you can be a warrior vegan and fight for the cause all you want. It doesn’t necessarily make you a better person.
All of that said, veganism is good for the planet. It’s good for people and it’s good for animals so I say, whatever gets them there? Good on them. Try also being nice to people. It might go a long way to further your cause.
6. Sugar Lemon stuff. It just smells like spring in California. There is no other way to describe it. It’s that fresh-out-of-the-shower wet hair smell. This is an otherwise nice photo marred by a little tiny hair. How did it get there? The clarity of this fantastic Nikon lens shows it. Nonetheless, this one of the things recommended by The Pioneer Woman. And yes, she annoys me continually but some of the things she recommends are truly great. Also try their tinted lip balm, Sugar Rose. It truly transforms your lips from try and parched to swollen and moist. It’s a lovely thing.
