It's funny how some things pop up at just the right moment--some word or book or person's presence you didn't know you needed until it appeared. What popped up for me is the "New Years Rulin's" of folksinger Woody Guthrie. His musical life has inspired countless musicians from Dylan to Springsteen, and in addition to penning classics like "This Land is Your Land," he wrote memoirs, fiction, poetry and was a visual artist, producing an astounding amount of art.
Despite the ironic tone--or perhaps because of it--he pretty much boiled down all of my
anxieties and goals down into a list as plain and simple as I could hope for.
What’s even more comforting, our lists look the same in a lot of ways. It may
not be a new year for me, but I’m entering a new way of living. A new
everything. Trying to embrace this tension, “live the questions,” like Rilke said, I've been pondering this list a lot. Numbers 16, 17, 18, and 19 roll through my mind often, and I'm discovering how much guts it takes to accomplish #31 through #33. But sometimes I treat #2 (Work by a schedule)#11 (Change socks) as the victories of my day.
What do you think of his list? Is it similar to any lists you make? How do lists help or harm us moving forward?
