Unfeigned innocence, love without dissimulation, critical thinking without personal criticism.
Also. Baby sea turtles, crossing the sand to the sea. Augh, I love it.
As for activities, I enjoy hunting down vintage clothing in thrift shops, playing music, splitting philosophical hairs, peeling apart theological ideas, teaching things and learning things, experimenting in the kitchen, throwing random parties, lying in the grass, wandering the aisles of health food stores, dancing like there's no tomorrow (or perhaps because there will be?) hearing people's life stories, reading poetry, creating art of any sort.
Various causes of interest:
This guy. Well not really I guess, but. You'll see:
Um, well, the bands I've friend-ed, of course. And most of the ones who've friend-ed me. Aside from that...well here is a list of things I am liking today (3/1/07, as ordered by stream of consciousness rather than relative affection): Talking Heads, Cure, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Jars of Clay, Goldfrapp, Beatles, They Might Be Giants, OKGO, The Good, the Bad, and the Queen, Queen, Janis Joplin, Two Lone Swordsmen, Turin Brakes, Bloc Party, Ultimate Fakebook, My Hotel Year, Pinback, Toots and the Maytals, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Spellbox, Swayze, Dasi, Brentina, Johann Ess, Allison Krause, the White Stripes, Joy Division, Psalters, Prodigy, the View, Jeff Buckley, Pink Floyd, Wyclef Jean, Lauren Hill, Joni Mitchell, the Velvet Underground, Marianne Faithfull, the Sugarcubes, Operator Please, Lily Allen, Erykah Badu, Flora Molton, Rosetta Tharpe, Dusty Springfield, the French Horns, Dr. Demento, Built to Spill, the Flaming Lips, Jonathan Richman, Fairfield Four, Bob Dylan, the Kinks, Loyal Frisby, the Pixies, James Brown, Mozart. 'tsit for now...
I like happy endings so long as they're real. I like movies that are sad too, and visually engaging, and when the people in them interact in ways that call attention to the complexity of all human interaction. Things like that.
PBS: almost anything, especially the cooking shows, NOVA, connections3 (rip), antiques roadshow, the britcoms on saturday night. Of mainstream TV: House, Betty, Grey's, Gilmore. Of the shows I am a little more hesitant to admit I watch: American Idol, ANTM, Seventh Heaven. Yes, really.
The Gospel of John, the Book of Hebrews, Revelation, Ecclesiates, Song of Solomon. And The Desire of Ages. Oh and Christ's Object Lessons, which is the pithiest most life-challenging and heartbreaking thing I've read in a long time. It's taking me for-e-ver to churn through it.
Currently reading: Blue Like Jazz, Running with Scissors, Pop Music Wit and Wisdom: What 200 Pop Songs Say About God.
Recently: Hope for the Flowers. (sitting in a bookstore yesterday, feeling everything that book is about and then some.)Also it's not a book but I am taking this online class about the life and teachings of Christ. I had quit for a while but now am back at it and it's good, like ice cream is good sometimes, and like vitamins are good sometimes... link
Christ. As for the non-divine humans: My parents, for all the work they do/have done to take care of us. My sister, one of the most benevolent/thoughtful people I know. My brother, supposedly he's a pessimist but every time I hang out with him I walk away feeling better about the world. And he takes good care of his family too. My friends, some of whom are so talented it's hardly believable, some of whom are sunshine through and through, some of whom are deeper than the mariana trench, some of whom see life from an angle I'd never see on my own, all of whom have taken me into some corner of their lives and I feel privileged to be there. Love to all you beautiful people.