Amy Lu's View

Are you a list-maker? Or maybe a list-consumer? If so, what kind? Many of us may first think of “To-Do” lists but there are all kinds of lists. I present:

A List of Lists

• To-do list
• Grocery/shopping list
• “Best of” and “Worst of” list
• Top 10 list (which could be “positive” or “negative”)
• Book list
• Reading list (yes, that’s different from a book list…I’m a librarian, trust me)
• Laundry list (which nowadays isn’t usually really about laundry)
• List of ingredients
• Christmas card list
• Vocabulary list
• Checklist
• Wishlist
• Playlist
• Guest list
• Cast list
• Short list
• Bucket list
• Hit list
• Who’s Who list
• Honey do list
• and, I can’t leave out…The Sh#t List (a favorite of my mother’s)

I don’t use all of these types of lists, or at least not that often. For example, I rarely need a list of ingredients, or at least it’s not much of a list:

Amy’s typical recipe list:

• Vegetables
• Faux meat
• Vegetables
• Hot sauce
• Pasta
• Vegetables

And I’m pretty sure a “Honey Do” list would not go over well in the Chamy household. (Although there is sometimes a “Honey Don’t” note on a whiteboard–as in “Don’t put dirty dishes in the dishwasher because I haven’t unloaded the clean ones yet.”)

But I love using lists when I write. Whether it’s a blog post or an e-mail or a performance review or a journal entry, using a list helps me get ideas out faster without having to worry about finding pesky connecting words to string my thoughts together. Lists help me escape the tyranny of prose.

Lists can be oppressive, though–especially To-Do Lists. Frog and Toad discover this in the story, “The List.” The titular list starts our harmlessly enough: Toad wakes up and feels he needs to get a lot done so he makes a To-Do list, beginning with “Wake Up.” I love that–making a To-Do list of achievable goals that are easily crossed off seems like a wise strategy.

At first, the list is empowering and affirming for Toad. He gets things on the list done and then gets to cross them off and he feels accomplished.

Then the list blows away, and Toad is completely stuck.

It’s like the chorus of the Greg Brown song:

Love calls like the wild birds-

It’s another day

A Spring wind blew my list of

Things to do…away

“Spring Wind” by Greg Brown

But unlike Greg Brown, Toad doesn’t embrace the freedom of losing his list. He doesn’t know what to do without his list. Toad, and his faithful friend, Frog, just sit around in limbo without a list to give them guidance.

Until eventually…they make a new list by writing “Go to sleep” in the dirt.

I think it’s now time to take a look at my To-Do List for the evening. I’m pretty sure the first items on it are “Publish a blog post” and “Drink red wine.”

*Yes, I’m hating on Hall and Oates again-even though it wasn’t on my list of things to do.