What I Endorse

Ran out of rasp­ber­ries (Pho­to by D)

This writ­ing exer­cise (which I stole from Esquire mag­a­zine) always worked well in my Cre­ative Writ­ing class­es. I think I know why—it is fun to think about stuff that you like. Of course, I used to do my list with my stu­dents, but I no longer remem­ber what I put. This is my list from now.
1) Rasp­ber­ries – Aren’t they the great­est? You can put them in yogurt, cere­al, fruit sal­ad and all kinds of desserts. I still eat them by themselves.
2) Titleist golf balls – I don’t think there’s any­thing nec­es­sar­i­ly supe­ri­or in qual­i­ty, at least for a golfer of my lev­el. It just feels good look­ing down on one—maybe it’s the font.
3) Pedome­ters – or Fit­bits or Garmins or watch­es or what­ev­er you use to mea­sure how many steps you take in a day. As long as you’re mov­ing, you know you’re alive. Don’t get too caught up in your goal—I will nev­er be obsessed with a num­ber again.
4) An Old-Fash­ioned – my favorite drink. Ice, bour­bon, sim­ple sug­ar, an orange slice, maraschi­no cher­ry, Angos­tu­ra bit­ters. I have a sep­a­rate essay planned for this one.
5) Vinyl – I don’t own any. But I watch my son han­dle records lov­ing­ly, and it reminds me of my ear­li­est music aware­ness years, and it warms my heart.
6) Pub­lic libraries – a won­der­ful sign of civilization.
7) Sym­bols, icons, good luck charms – Let me be clear—I think it is delu­sion­al to attach any spir­i­tu­al or super­nat­ur­al pow­er to them (inan­i­mate objects)—but I had a coun­sel­ing ses­sion with a pas­tor once, and he gave me a san­dal­wood cross, and I like the feel of it in my pocket.
8) Pis­ta­chio nuts – Any­body remem­ber the red ones? The ones that stained your hands. I loved them! But the nat­ur­al ones are fine. I’ll bet there was some­thing about the chem­i­cals. What I like is that you have to work a lit­tle for the payoff.
9) The Week – We get about five, but this is the only mag­a­zine I com­mit to. I do Editor’s Note, Polit­i­cal Car­toons, Tele­vi­sion, Movies, Music, Books, and then leaf through the news stuff. Objec­tive news has become an anom­aly, but they try to stay balanced.
10) USPS – because I root for the under­dog. How can you not feel sor­ry for a com­pa­ny whose num­ber one prod­uct is called “snail mail”? But they try. Hon­est­ly, I have met some pret­ty cheer­ful peo­ple at the Post Office (behind the desk, not in line).
11) Polar bears – I love see­ing polar bears at the zoo, but they just seem so out of place. The world is becom­ing their zoo.
12) Ceram­ic knives – Have you seen those suck­ers? First of all, they are white. They make any­one feel like a chef. They are sharp, and you nev­er have to sharp­en them. They make my fin­gers ner­vous, but in a care­ful way. There is noth­ing bet­ter for cut­ting up fruits and vegetables.
13) Bar­be­cu­ing – My favorite way to cook (and I am not even good at it). The first rule of bar­be­cue is: Nev­er leave your meat—which means attentiveness—which is a weak­ness of mine. Ah, but the ambi­ence of the back porch, and when you do get the meat (or what­ev­er) just right—a taste of heaven!
14) The smell of a fresh­ly mowed lawn – I hired some­one to mow our lawn this year—never done that before. Damn if it doesn’t smell even better!
15) A cold beer on a hot day – Beer is seasonal—I can hear a cho­rus of disagreement—to me. The idea of com­ing in from the cold to open a beer is incon­gru­ous. How­ev­er, when I have fin­ished 18 holes in the mid­dle of sum­mer in Dal­las, the sen­sa­tion of the first taste is beyond exquisite.

Like I said, fun to write. Sev­er­al of my items might seem world­ly, but world­ly is as world­ly does. I look at my list and I sense God’s plea­sure. I don’t like those per­form­ers who try to get their audi­ence to sing or clap along, but if any read­er want­ed to share a few endorse­ments with me, I’d be very pleased—always look­ing for new things to enjoy.

Comments

  • Dogs — for their uncon­di­tion­al love and the vast vari­ety of breeds. They are all amaz­ing and all have served man in one capac­i­ty or another.

    Jet­ted tubs — because they are bliss­ful­ly relaxing!

    Grapes — seed­less is best. They come in a num­ber of yum­my vari­eties. Keep them in the frig for a cool snack in the sum­mer. They are so round and so juicy. It is no won­der they also the main ingre­di­ent of sweet red wine!

    Babies — they ALL have the same won­der­ful baby smell. Like pup­pies all have that won­der­ful pup­py smell. What is up with that?

    Fire in the right place — like a camp­fire or fire­place fire. It dances and crack­les and warms and smells toasty and takes me back to sim­pler times.

    Laura18 October, 2019
  • Tie to start a vinyl col­lec­tion. I rec­om­mend S & R Swim­min Time as a first pur­chase. Divine.

    Cari A Weems10 October, 2019
    • A won­der­ful start, but O’ Be Joy­ful and Lit­tle Seeds are just as good–make it a triple purchase!

      Dallin Malmgren10 October, 2019

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