LISTS CAN BE comforting things. They provide order and discipline in our otherwise often tumultuous lives. Lists are handy reminders of things that matter to us, big and small, important and incidental. Making lists distinguish us from the lesser primates.
Lists can be simple [grocery list] or complicated [how to…]; lists can be worthy [Xmas gift list] or unworthy [Nixon's enemies list]; lists entertain [my favorite movies] and impose [to-do list]. Some lists can be tackled alone [summer reading list], some require the participation of others [a court docket list].
But most lists are solitary endeavors. Listers are different than listeners. People who make lists are grasping, not at straws, but at memories, or hope. Some activity lists can be accomplished in a day [“things I have to do today”], others take much more time and effort [a bucket list].
Lists typically enumerate a set of items considered by the person creating the list as being in the same category. The danger is that categories can be confining, too exclusive, or antagonistic to creativity. Lists are active and inactive, animate and inanimate, commanding and discretionary. But whatever degree of involvement a list reflects, a certain amount of energy and enthusiasm is typically required; otherwise one would be considered…well, listless.
Let me know where you put your list and I'll add it to mine to remind you !!
I however simple, start my day with writing a list and have been doing that every day for 50 years . Whether it's on paper or in my head , I feel a sense of accomplishment at least for that one thing completed in my day. I don't dwell on the days list as there is always tomorrow and if my body is nowhere to be found tomorrow, I know that someday someone will see my list and complete it for me .
My complex list in the bucket of life was completed last year ,a great accomplishment of adventures. Now there is a new bucket filled with more that I had to dig deeper down .
At times a day goes by slowly yet the years fly by us all... Don't waste them , not a moment, as they will pass and that moment in time will never return again.
Ritz
Hello HenryM.
Thank you for your thought for today and the opportunity to put pen to paper in the form of yet another rhyme.
I'm sorry to say that I identify with Xnine on this one - in that if I was to make lists, I would be forever wondering where the hell I put them, only to find them some weeks later and wonder why I ever bothered to compile the lists in the first place.
Best wishes
Bill
LISTS.
Why is it people will insist
upon the making of a list
for almost everything that's done
before an action has begun?
Could it be this summary
would aid an ailing memory,
where otherwise they may forget,
which, in turn, may make them fret?
Might it be that their recall
is barely anything at all,
so, they have no alternative
but make their memory portative.
What sort of people can't get by
without a list to help them try
to live their lives as they would want
or is a list a symbiont?
There are some lists I understand,
like DIY projects that land
upon your doorstep, fully-boxed
which otherwise would have you foxed.
These come in foreign languages,
with lists which raise one's anguishes,
especially when instructional norms
are lists that are in icon forms.
And then, there is the internet,
where massive lists will try to get
potential purchasers to buy,
but leaves me simply asking why?
It must be said that I get by
without the need for lists, and try
to live my life from day to day
without a list to guide my way.
B. Withers 2021
