Why It's Good To Like Stuff

There's a couple of reasons I want to start writing about things I like in the world.

First: I did it for a while, years ago, on a blog called Favorite Thing Ever that was created by a very cool guy named Matt Youngmark. FtE was a blog that Matt and his wife ran and invited people they knew to contribute to. It was written by a diverse group of people who were unafraid to just openly like things to the tune of 400-1600 words. And it was some of the most fun I've ever had as a writer, and a reader. Some of the other authors liked things that I don't really care for, like horror movies. But I loved reading about them, seeing things through someone else's eyes, getting a glimpse of things I would have missed on my own.

Second: It's therapy for me. It's really easy for me to be snide or sarcastic or “too cool” for stuff. But, deep down, that's not really who I am. I see myself as a very positive person, but often I don't present myself that way. That's gotta change. It's easy to dismiss things. Saying that something has flaws is a safe thing to say, you will never be wrong. But it makes the world less interesting. Liking things is exciting. They may be weird or janky or problematic in any of a multitude of ways, but that doesn't mean they're without merit.

Third: I'd like to be a tiny light. There are problems all over the world, all the time and I think we need to be looking for things we can do to fix those problems. We need to be fighting intolerance, hate, discrimination, and any and all other social evils at every turn. But sometimes we also need a break. Sometimes we need to remember what we're fighting for. Sometimes it's okay to just be happy for a while. So I'd like to share the things that make me happy and hopefully some of them will make you happy as well.