Ordering

This morning, as the day lightens and people are busily getting ready for their days, my kid is creating ginormous traffic jams on the dining table with his cars (is there any truer sign of a child born and raised in a city?) while I fight with my top ten albums of the decade list. TOH and I have been doing this for more years than I care to remember - writing down things we have loved and sharing them in a card to each other.

There has been pushback against ranking and ordering and pulling things apart to give them an ordinal value (that article was linked to in at least three newsletters I subscribe to, all of which I adore and value immensely). I get it, I do. I understand the arguments. And, apart from anything, how much weight should we really give to your opinion? I really do not care what most people think, particularly when they display what is dreadful taste.

But, to quote an inarguable truth:

The end of year (or decade) list matters to me (and others, I am presumptively inferring) because it is a time to pause, reflect, and think about where we were when we started. Yes, a decade is probably arbitrary, but I like the practice of going through how my life has changed and doing it through my cultural consumption. It's a chance for me to think more closely about what I consumed then, what I consume now, and why; what mattered to me, what songs really seem to resonate and hit hard and others that I listened to a lot that I barely think about now. I found a 2012 playlist and didn't recognize a couple of the songs; not just the names, but when I played them. It was as if I'd never heard them before. I was bewildered by them, and wondering what was going through my head to place them on a list when I no longer recognized them. 

Looking back at my decade, the early time of going out a lot - discovering (belatedly) how being a crowd of sweaty people and just dancing (as opposed to swaying at live music, something I've always loved) was a delight - you can see that in my musical choices and how much that has influenced the rest of the decade (particularly compared to the previous two, although those tendencies were germinating, clearly). It reflects the new friends I made, how I chose to spend my time with them. But also how much my tastes and life have changed such that albums that were super important to me at the end of the year came out are fond memories but not things that move me now. 

And yes, of course I've changed; I changed careers, my partner and I now live in the same place as opposed to commuting, we own a house, my mother died, I had a kid, friends have come and gone, politics has changed, things look so different. Time does that. But I don't think there's anything wrong with examining how and why, and that is what a best-of does for me. So when TOH and I exchange our lists in Christmas cards, it's one of the Christmas presents I value most - the time and effort gone into it, thinking about what has meant a lot to the both of us, how two people can spend so much time together, doing and listening to the same things and yet having completely different favourites. It gives me an insight into him and his life that I don't see because I'm not with him when he listens to some of these things. 

So make your lists, people! Or don't. Whatever. Listmaking might be in my top five things to do for Christmas. But you don't need to have a list. I promise. Just don't feel bad if you do like making lists; that's okay, too.