P IS FOR PROCRASTINATE

THANKSGIVING 2006
Originally uploaded by Looly Huheet.

Awhile back -- like, November, heh -- guided_by_grace did the following meme; she'd been given "T" and her answers included truth and truffles. It's one of the rare examples of a meme with substance and Self-Revelatoryishness. (I'm pretty sure that wasn't a word until just now.) A similar incarnation of the meme made the rounds a year or so ago; filkerdave gave me a U back then, which led to everything from "understanding" to "umlauts," because I like umlauts. Everybody likes umlauts.

My letter this time around is "P." So, here goes:

If you comment, you get a letter; list 10 things you love that begin with that letter.

(These are in no order, prioritywise or otherwise.)

Prayer. The real stuff, the communion that takes me outside myself and my world while simultaneously increasing my awareness of both. Fellowship and communication with the Divine, which can sometimes be like waltzing and sometime like wrestling, but always an experience both humbling and empowering: Talking with the source, speaking with the author of salvation, communing with God. It's a privilege I rarely appreciate the way I likely should.

Plums. They're much yum. Many fruits seem to start with P (in English, anyway), but I've never really cared for pears or pineapples and I'm somewhat indifferent about peaches and papayas. And I don't think I've ever eaten a pomegranate.

Perspective. It's an attribute I highly appreciate in other people and, for that matter, in myself. I've been blessed, or perhaps cursed, with more than my share: It's seldom that I find myself getting angered, or offended, or otherwise emotionally reactive in conversations or other venues either in person or online. (It sometimes seems kind of unreal to me how quickly and easily some exchanges in communities here on LJ (cough, christianity, cough) erupt into reactivity and emotional raw-nerve bristlings and mutual taking of offense.) I tend to be able to see further down the line and realize what battles are worth fighting and which are not -- and tend to be able to understand the gist of what someone is saying without being blinded or obscured by an emotional reaction. (Alternately, maybe I'm just cold.) Perspective helps me appreciate the good times for what they are: transitory, but no less to be appreciated. And to weather the bad times for what they are: inevitable, usually necessary, full of opportunities for growth ... and, ultimately, just as transitory as the good times.

Pastors. Real ones, good ones. Like mine, for instance. *smiles* (That's him in the adjoining photo carving a Thanksgiving turkey under the hawklike gaze of his dog.) Spiritual leaders who are intent on sharing truth as they understand it, without haraunging or manipulating. Who see their role as empowering people to grow and develop their gifts and lead, and don't feel threatened by it. Who are faithful shepherds, but don't treat people like sheep, if you follow.

The Police. One of my favorite bands, which had more or less disbanded in all but name by the time I began to appreciate them around 1985 or thereabouts. I was reminded of how much I used to dig 'em tonight, when they opened the Grammy broadcast with "Roxanne." (They also inspired one of my favorite Ookla the Mok lyrical couplets: "how you played your bass/while Stewart punched your face.") They married reggae sensibilities to punk's energy and conciseness and a literate worldview (Jung! Nabakov!). I'd still like to see a new Police album, but I get the feeling that you can't go home again.

Passion. OK, this might seem to contradict some of the stuff I said about myself in the "perspective" entry, regarding how I tend to be free from a lot of emotional reaction. That doesn't mean I don't feel; it means I don't let it cloud my judgement. At any rate, "passion" here means intensity of one's commitment to something -- a relationship, a project, a goal, even something one just plain likes to do. If something is worth my time and energy, it's worth just that: Time. Energy. My general nonplussed demeanor shouldn't be taken for lackadaisical. (I'm sure there's a noun form of that word. But I'm sure it's not "lackadaise.") I admire people who throw themselves wholeheartedly and full steam into their art, their work, their family ... and who have the perspective to know when to pull back, to rest. Passion and perspective need to co-exist in roughly equal measures for a healthy life, I think.

Peanuts. Not the legume, about which I'm fairly indifferent (though I love peanut butter, and my father was a big fan of boiled green peanuts), but the classic comic strip by Charles Schulz, still my favorite all-time strip. Sparky had his fallow periods here and there, but when he was on, which was most of the time, he was unbeatable in plumbing the human condition with humor and pathos, and the shades of humor varied from whimsy to situational to wryness. Charlie Brown, at core, is the way we usually feel -- we all deal with our own kite-eating trees and disdainful red-haired girls and nemeses (who range from family members to employers to politicians) who pull the football away at the last minute, time after time. Beethoven, Van Gogh, the Red Baron -- I first encountered all these names on the lips of Peanuts characters. And the one piece of music guaranteed to get me movin' is, of course, Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy," theme to about 15-20 of the TV shows. (Runners-up in all-time favorite comic-strip category: Calvin and Hobbes; Questionable Content; Mutts; For Better or For Worse (when it's not manipulative or insufferably self-righteous); Doonesbury; and the glory days of L'il Abner. Haven't read enough of Walt Kelly's Pogo to formulate an opinion.

Paste. The magazine itself is OK, as music/culture magazines go, though I prefer No Depression, but the enclosed mix CD is what's kept me a regular buyer. It's these discs that first introduced me to the virtues of Josh Ritter, Chuck Prophet, Mary Gauthier, the Polyphonic Spree, Patty Griffin, Aaron Sprinkle, Sarah Harmer, Rosie Thomas, Mason Jennings, Bill Mallonee, even Lucinda WIlliams and Dar Williams (though I'd heard of both prior).

Paper. I thought about "Printed Word," but this just seemed more all-encompassing. I'm a journalist, and a bibliophile, and as such I tend to think that literacy is among humanity's greatest achievements and gifts. I'm not going to wax further because chances are if you don't value the power and nuance and possibilities of the written word, you probably aren't on my friends-list. *smiles*

Peace. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives." (Jesus)