gideonstrauss.com

This is a working list of 50 things I love. Writing such lists is an exercise I often ask people to do in my workshops or classrooms, because (following the teaching of Steven Garber and Augustine of Hippo) I believe that it is in consideration of what we love that we come to know, most deeply, who we are and who we are becoming.

 

3” x 5” index cards

Angela. Tala. Hannah. Those whom they love, and who love them.

Bakeries

Big businesses that can be trusted by their customers, employees, and shareholders. Big businesses that make an enduring contribution over many generations.

Black jeans, black collared shirts, and crumply black jackets (with the odd white shirt)

Bluntstone boots

Bread

Bureaucracy (as an alternative to brigandage)

Calvin Seerveld and Steven Garber, and what they write

Cello. Clarinet. Drum beats . Solo piano. Violin

Cheese

Citizens who stand up, speak out, and act with practical wisdom

Civility

Coffee

Craft

Crime and Spy novels

Evernote . Instapaper . Facebook . Twitter . Remember The Milk . Gmail

Everyday imagination, in particular in how people eat, dress, and furnish their rooms

Free weights and treadmills

Ginger beer

Herman Dooyeweerd and Dirk Vollenhoven, and what they wrote

Hiking. In particular in forests or next to water. And in particular during the Spring and Fall.

Imagination

Jane Austen and William Shakespeare, and what they wrote

Katrina

Kindness

Learning . Students . Teaching . Classrooms and workshops, formal and informal

Magazines

Markets. On every scale.

My direct reports and peers in the places where I have been privileged to work. Three of my various bosses through the years.

My father. My mother. My sister. My brother. My father-in-law. My mother-in-law. My wife’s siblings. Those whom they love, and who love them.

My iPhone

Paintings. In particular by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Frankenthaler.

Patterns

Poems. Especially short poems. And even more especially very short poems.

Politicians who lead with integrity toward public justice

Practical wisdom

Practice

Public justice

Public libraries

Small businesses deeply embedded in their local communities. Small businesses that serve others far and wide across the globe.

Small groups of musicians: rock bands, jazz combos, string quartets

Songwriters and singers

Southwest Airlines

Stabilo Sensor pens

The Big Sur

The eucharist. Baptism.

The patina of things that wear in rather than wear out

Three psalms of wonder: 8. 19. 104. Three psalms of heartbreak: 51. 88. 137. The story within which they incline towards hope.

YHWH

 

This list was made on Monday, August 29, 2011, without reference to earlier lists published on this blog. The contents of those earlier lists are not necessarily hereby abrogated. Yes, I cheated a little to make this a list of 50 things.