What do you love about the human experience?

Lyxdeslic · Apr 16, 2008

z10 said:
reading through the thread i have to say i agree with lyx on his comment that love should be held on a high pedestal
now ain't that the god damn truth

The above quote is what inspires this thread. Many of you are aware of a similarly titled thread, in which I seemed to cause a lot of distress. That was not my intention. So I thought this could be a place to expand, reach beyond the borders so to speak, and discuss the things in life/in general that we love.

That said, I love: my children's laughter funneling in my ears; connecting with another in a way that can only be described as "This...whatever this is"; the raw intensity on my wife's face when she climaxes; a flourishing, lone Oak or Elm standing proud in the middle of a long-ago-slaughtered field; watching puddles gather rain; music that sneaks under my skin and sets my nerves crawling with vibrations; a random act of kindness, just when you thought kindness no longer existed; that golden time before a summer sunset, filling the air with clarity; those writing sessions when your fingertips are merely channels to ideas that you know not from where they came.

Oh yeah, and Ice-cream. Ya gotta love that.

Anyone wanna share, feel free.

Lyx

JJ Cooper · Apr 17, 2008

I love the reaction of my kids when the discover or learn something new. I love the feeling of finishing something I doubted I could ever do. And I love a challenge.

JJ

Devil Ledbetter · Apr 17, 2008

I love paragraph breaks.

I love when Peter calls me and says "Grab your skates. I'll be at your house in two minutes." I love that someone else shares my philosophy of "drop everything and skate." I love the anticipation of a good long skate as we sit on my steps and pull our rollerblades on. I love when we're skating over a bridge and it opens for freighter and we get to watch it pass up close. And I love it an hour or two later when we finally roll back onto my street, exhausted and safely home.

I love drinking wine with my father on my parents' back patio, and talking about work. And I love when I'm at my parents, and one of my sisters shows up, too. I love the 10 minute drop-by visits that turn into 2-hour impromptu cocktail parties.

I love the look on Burr's face when he shows me pictures of himself snuggling with his baby grandson, who has Down syndrome.

I love going to the Cheeseburger Festival with Kathy.

I love having coffee on the front porch with my husband, or ducking into the little candy shop downtown with him, or taking the kids for a long walk to the ice cream parlor together.

I love snuggling in the club chair with my son, watching a movie and sharing a bowl of popcorn. And I love the way my daughter makes him laugh so hard he can't stop.

I love watching my kids get off the school bus: DS taking big steps and swinging his lunchbox; DD laughing with a friend.

I love goofing around online with my internet soul mate.

KTC · Apr 17, 2008

Devil Ledbetter said:
I love paragraph breaks.

I love David. She's so funny.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Apr 17, 2008

I love O'l Boy. I love waking up in the morning beside him - CPAP machine and all - and going to sleep beside him at night. I don't love it when he has to fly away from me for training on new equipment, but I love it when he comes home. I love making a home for him. I love working to help him make a home for me. I love our three girls - if I could, I'd make a place for a thousand more rescue cats and dogs... though I don't love the fact that hundreds of thousands of animals need homes 'cause spaying and neutering seem to be such foreign concepts to some folks. I love this country - with all its warts. I love the smell of freshly cut grass. Rain. Fresh herbs. Baking bread. Puppy breath. Kitty fur. Lilacs. Iris. Home-grown tomatoes!

I love my sister and the treatments that beat back her breast cancer so she can still be around. I love my dad still, twenty years after his death, and my mom, ten years after hers. I love my brothers, especially the one who died of a heart attack at 59. The good really do die young.

I love a good story. Sunrise and sunset. Far-off thunder. Music.

And friends.

CDarklock · Apr 17, 2008

Lyxdeslic said:
That said, I love: my children's laughter

Once you have kids, it's all about the kids. Nothing else comes close. If you don't get it, you don't get it.

I love women when they're not being women. When they're just being people, and they don't have an axe to grind or a point to make or anything to prove, and we're just two people who entirely coincidentally could have sex if the mood struck us.

Soccer Mom · Apr 17, 2008

I love being a woman. I enjoy grinding my axe, making my point, proving myself, and not having sex with odd green critters.

NeuroFizz · Apr 17, 2008

I am watching my young children grow from toddlers to pre-schoolers to schoolers. I see the physical changes and I'm amazed. I see the changes in reasoning and thinking. I see them becoming social beings. I see an emerging conscience in each one, and a developing care for others. But no matter how their bodies and minds change, every time they laugh, I only hear riffs of toddler giggles. They will always be my babies.

maestrowork · Apr 17, 2008

CDarklock · Apr 17, 2008

Soccer Mom said:
I love being a woman. I enjoy grinding my axe, making my point, proving myself, and not having sex with odd green critters.

And whenever you're doing those things, I don't love you.

But when you stop, I do. Like it or not.

Stew21 · Apr 17, 2008

In the morning when my 3 year old wakes up, he wants to snuggle, to be held and to sit on my lap. He reaches his pudgy hand up and rubs my cheek. His brother is too old for it now. I recognize that it is my last opportunity to enjoy it when the little one does this. I cherish it. I love it.
My older one is wonderful at holding a conversation. He's smart, persuasive, a born leader. I love watching his confidence sprout, and his goodness shining in all he "leads".
I love watching my husband be a dad. when adults forget what it is like to be children and find it again in their own kids, and they play - REALLY play - I love it.
I love having my coffee at the kitchen sink in the solitude of an early morning. I love watching the sun rise. our yard, on a given morning can have 50 or more birds, many different kinds. I love stepping outside and hearing 6 or 7 different kinds of birds calling from their perches. It's a symphony.
I love that I stepped outside the other day and the asparagus is coming up.
I love garden tomatoes.
I love that I had such a strong relationship with my grandmother that I feel her in my life everyday, still. she died 7 years ago, and I see her in the lines of my palms. I love that I get to carry her with me and everything I perceive is peppered or tempered by what her perception would have been.
I love a job well done.
I love fishing.
I love reading a book that I can take with me for a long time. I love words put together in such a perfect and orginal way that it creates a physical/emotional response - whether they are someone else's or my own.
I love hammocks.
I love the firm hand that touches my waist while I cook dinner; sometimes the simplest sign of affection in a day is the best one. Sometimes it's the only one in a busy day.
I love watching the kids have fun. My husband and I look at each other through the chaos of a wrestling match on the living room floor and smile at each other, enjoying our children together. It forces the love in the room into a thin line - it becomes a string running between us. We smile. I love the way his eyes shine a bit brighter blue when he smiles out of love.

jennontheisland · Apr 17, 2008

I love pondering what other kinds of experiences we could have besides human.

Lyxdeslic · Apr 17, 2008

I love the responses in this thread, and hope they keep comin'.

I love that I overslept this morning because I was up too late reading a book and posting on this here writers' board. Why is this something that merits love? Because my independent daughter woke herself up without aid, then walked down the hall to her brother's room and roused him as well. The fact they take care of each other and are morphing into little adults, fills my pride-well to an unmatched level.

Lyx

z10 · Apr 17, 2008

i love only art and creation
and the one joy that humans have above gods, the joy of discovery

Mom'sWrite · Apr 17, 2008

KTC said:
I LOVE:

My son's crazy infectious insanity. I love that he walks through the house quoting outrageous movie moments verbatim. I love that he does his own standup and expects the accolades he receives. I love that my dog goes nuts when I enter a room. I love that the forest near my house grows a blanket of trilliums every spring and when you look through the trees all you see is an ocean of gentle white with moments of pink. I love that my daughter is fighting the world and trying to make it bend to her will. I love that she struggles against the grain and laugh at the insanity of that struggle. I love that people cry at movies, and laugh. I love moments when a room of strangers connect and the me-me-meness of the closed off human oneness of self thingy stops... when someone in a store says something so insanely funny that everybody around joins in the laughter and suddenly the world snaps and they are talking to each other and not trying to avoid eye contact. I love when my wife talks to strangers in the grocery store and I ride her about it for five minutes telling her how crazy she is... and then, when I'm sure she's looking I do the same thing. I love when little old ladies approach me and ask me to reach something off the top shelf. I love their reaction when I say, "Now why would I want to do something like that? I hardly know you!" I love how thankful they are. I love opening a NEW book and smelling the pages. I use to love doing this with records... but now I can't. Books are nearly as good. I love when the trees start to bud... I know it's coming... there is this great pregnant expectation in the air. I can almost touch it, but not quite. I love twizzlers at the Blue Jays games with the Dome open. Red ones. I love going to hockey games. I love watching my son play hockey. I love when I get something... when a friend says something that nobody else in the room understands but me... because we are friends and I know what they are thinking when they say it. I love writing my experiences and changing some of them to thinly veiled fiction. I love helping others. I love when something big happens and people are brought to the best of their potential... the something big can be something good or something bad... as long as it calls people to action. I love that people care about people... no matter what they say when they grumble at the worst parts of their days... there is love. you can see it if you look. I love throwing sticks for my girl and watching her swim in the lake at the cottage with my son. She swims right beside him, slightly back... watching his every move. She is ready to rescue him at a moment's notice. I love this... even though I secretly know she can't rescue him and would probably do more harm than good if she attempted to. I love that she gets her paws on the ladder of the floating dock and gets right up there with her boy so she can jump off beside him... a feat of unnatural wonder. I love the colours of summer. I love the colours of fall. I love tall grass in meadows... walking through it and disappearing. Lying down in it and looking up at a different world. I love the sky... and being under it. I love fresh cut grass smell. I love BBQs. My 3 brothers rock. I love rivers. I love fishing. I love awkward moments. I love being in my element. I can go on all day... but I will stop for now.

I love you for writing this.

Jcomp · Apr 17, 2008

I love writing. I love that we can appreciate the mystery of what is unknown. I love imagination. I love family, good friends, delicious food and a good drink.

And, of course, I love being hopelessly girl-crazy.

Mom'sWrite · Apr 17, 2008

I love my dad when he's goofy and says the wrong thing.
I love the way my dad hates to be the center of attention but loves to be in the room with his crazy family.
I love the way my dad cooks the same meal over and over until he feels he got it right.
I love the way my dad fixes everything with duct tape.
I love the way my dad works first and then plays.
I love the way my dad stayed up until 3 am so he could tell me he was proud of me when he saw my name in the credits of a tv show.
I love my dad when he talks with my son about war planes for hours.
I love my dad for dropping everything and watching the kids whenever I ask.
I love my dad for making up new stories to the pictures in my favorite book.
I love my dad for always standing up for truth, justice and the American way.
I love my dad for making my childhood idyllic except for the times I was sure he was a complete idiot.
I love my dad for moving to Arizona when he retired and calling me a commie because he couldn't find a bottle of ketchup in my refrigerator.
I love my dad for setting the example of honesty, of hard work, of loyalty.
I love my dad for always being neurotically punctual.
I love my dad for pulling my ass out of the fire over and over again.
I love the way my dad never asks anyone to do anything he wouldn't do himself.
I love the way my dad loves my mom and the way she smiles and loves him right back.
I love the way my dad shouts at the tv when the Cubbies lose or Tiger misses an easy putt.
I love the way my dad loves my children and asks each one if they want a punch in the nose or a kick in the teeth or a spanking.
I love the way he talked every day with a picture of my youngest daughter, that he always kept her picture nearby, that my made my Smoodgie feel so special.
I love that he opened his eyes yesterday and saw her picture one last time before he died. He is her first favorite person in the whole world. She is his last favorite Smoodgie ever. That tie will never be unbound.
I love the way he said goodbye to us yesterday and passed out of the pain of this life to a place where he can finally rest.
I love the way my dad will always be my dad no matter what.

maestrowork · Apr 17, 2008

I love falling in love with someone so hopelessly unavailable. Unrequited, unconditional love teaches me that, yes, I know what real love is all about.

I love that I have exactly four truest friends in the world. I would have been happy with just one, but I get four.

I love waking up to spring, falling asleep in the summer, taking a walk in the fall, and curling up with someone who smells nice in the winter. And we wake up together.

I love being able to be happy all by myself. Yet I know I'm not alone in the world.

I love how my work may touch or inspire someone; that I've left a mark on them.

I love finding something new in everything, marveling at the beauty of the world as if I just see it for the first time.

I love being a child inside.

I love a genuine smile.

I love to flirt.

I love the friendship and camaraderie we cultivate here, especially how the House of Love keeps going and going and going and going...

JustJess · Apr 17, 2008

Great, great, great thread.

I've gotta agree with KTC on a lot of this...I love when a group of people do something-anything together. That solidarity always results in a lump in my throat. I've been known to cry in public whenever there is a big emotional display-sporting events, Broadway plays, acts of volunteer work or charity....

But nothing makes me more aware of being "human" being tied to a body like giving birth-I love the challenge of it-the vulnerability, pain, pleasure (of relief!), and complete faith you need to have to push through that pain and trust that you'll come out of it in one piece....
A description of my last birth (at home, standing, with me playing "catcher")

The Birth of Jackson Bryce (born 11/30/07)
Warm, wet, gush.
Tick tock, tick tock
Contraction, expansion
Tick tock, tick tock
Husband, friends, midwives, mom
Tick tock, tick tock
Laughter, television, CD
Exam, disappointment
Lavender. Darkness.
Tick tock, tick tock
Rocking chair, Gatorade, hot pack
Standing. Swaying.
Closer, stronger, longer
Inward. Intense.
Giddy. Excited. Close…
Pressure? Apprehension.
Kneel, push. Squat, push.
Fear. Doubt. Tears.
Stand. Pressure. Exertion.
Back-POP
PUUUUSH
Gush. Drip. Splash.
Scent: Copper, bleach.
Shaking, trembling.
Downward.
Burn, pressure.
Open. Open. Open.
Head out.
RELIEF…..ahhhh
Shoulders, belly, legs.
Reach, grab, hold.
Warm, slippery, wet.
Baby. Here. Now.
Love. Joy. Exhilaration.

I love seeing my children asleep, hearing them laugh, marveling at their questions and reasoning: "Are their birthdays in heaven?...Yes, because Washington and Lincoln are still celebrating theirs."

I love the sensation of weightlessness and of my stomach dropping when on a swing or a rollercoaster or jumping on a trampoline.

I love to dance, to close my eyes and get lost in the music.

I love hiking through the woods, the sounds of birds and running water, the looking up at the sky through a green canopy of leaves.

There's so much more but now as the weather gets warm, these are the ones that come to mind.

dobiwon · Apr 17, 2008

I love seeing my children become parents--good parents--damn good parents!

rhymegirl · Apr 17, 2008

This is a very nice thread.

I love having the sense of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.

I love being a mom. When my kids were little, they taught me to appreciate the very simple things in life. Every day they'd see something new and different--things I took for granted. And now that they're older, I love seeing them grow into interesting, responsible, caring, talented, independent people.

I love the four seasons--watching the earth change and go through its cycles. Right now Spring--the season of re-birth.

I love the arts--poetry, dance, music, books, theatre, art. Without these things, life would be very dull. These are the things that allow us to express our feelings. And feelings make us human.

Captain Scarf · Apr 17, 2008

Look at the woman in red.

Now tell me it isn't great to be alive.

JoeEkaitis · Apr 17, 2008

The food. Yeah, the food.

Well, that, and the beer.

Oh, and Disneyland.

Kerr · Apr 17, 2008

I love right now.

Lyxdeslic · Feb 8, 2011

I love remembering better days, and letting go of the bad ones. (Sorry for the bump. I'm in catharsis.)

Lyx

What do you love about the human experience?

Laughing every time I choke.

.

Come on you stranger, you legend,

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Hand? What hand?

Yes!

Crypto-fascist

The grad students did it

Fear the Death Ray

Yes!

the world is at my command

Laughing every time I choke.

Service with a smile

Service with a smile

Fear the Death Ray

Planning to retire for the 5th time

It's a New Year!

Smart-casual Ninja

Certified Gray Haired Geek

I vant to bite you

Laughing every time I choke.