Favorite Things: One

Some weeks ago it struck me how many preferences we encounter, enact and enjoy every day of our lives. Brown socks today, almond butter on toast, sunny side up, take the back roads, listen to news instead of music, bean soup, red pen, no drink, read paper, this chair, those shoes, no shoes, wool scarf,  skip this block, walk fast, shop here, sleep or stay up... It is staggering, really, how much of our lives are spent in choosing, and how telling our choices are.

So, naturally, I thought: this calls for some interwebs. I emailed some buddies and we decided to start sharing two of our Favorites every Friday, and inviting you all to join in! We made a list of some very random and some very predictable favorites and tossed them like a salad until they made a list, and here we go! If you would like to play along just leave a comment for one of us and we can link to you in our posts and send you the list, too.

I thought we'd start off traditional today.

Favorite Animal & Favorite Superpower/Superhero

:: Part of the appeal of this for me is that it is so hard for me to choose favorites. I love so many animals for so many different reasons, how could you possibly choose just one? And based on what? After some pondering, though, I have come to a resolution. For their ungainly elegance, their otherworldliness, their gentleness, their quiet, their sheer size, their daintiness, their exotic beauty and their immense hearts, I choose:

Several years ago I read the story of Zarafa, one of the first giraffes brought to Europe as gift to King Charles X of France by Muhammed Ali of Egypt. She walked most of the way, and as she did her celebrity status grew until she was greeted and followed by parades in each town she came to. Any animal who can undertake such an alien journey (it got so cold she had to wear shoes and a coat) with grace and aplomb earns my utter admiration. I often hope for such equanimity of my own.

:: Superpower is kind of a cooler way of saying Magic. This was a cultural shift, I think, when we stopped wanting wizards and started wishing for mutants. Perhaps a subject to be plumbed another time. I have to own up, here, to a certain amount of geekery since I have actually read several respectable volumes of the Marvel and DC variety in my day. I think of these, X-Men was always my favorite, I have always enjoyed the struggle against xenophobia inherent in their stories. Myself, even though she was one of my least favorite of these characters, I would choose to have Jean Grey's powers of telepathy and telekinesis. That combination is sort of like wishing for more wishes; there is little left that remains impossible for you. But let's be honest, as long as we're signing up for the impossible we might as well go whole hog, right?

So concludes Round One. Make sure to drop by and see Alex, Lee and Star's Favorites, too. I think that's going to be the best part since I don't know anyone so well that I could guess even half their answers for these topics. And please join us, I look forward to learning a lot.

Cheers!