Hi honeycombs and welcome to this week’s Friday Open Thread!
So here’s a thing: I don’t believe in favorites. Not with books or movies or foods or La Croix flavors and not with people.
The thing about favorites is that they’re reductive and make you feel like you’re sharing part of yourself or seeing part of someone else when what you’re actually sharing is a one-note opinion with no context.
Do you like that one thing because it’s the absolute best thing out of all of whatever arbitrary category you’re talking about right now? Because it’s the most recent thing in that category that caught your attention? Because it seems like it’s what you should like? How do you even know if you like something?
Having a favorite implies stasis instead of fluidity. It implies that your relationship with a given category is finished and tied up with a bow, or with some rope if rope’s your favorite, and that that’s that. I prefer an ongoing process of learning and growing and reevaluating and seeing how things might fit just right into one context but never fit into another, and also of trying new things, because what if you think mint chocolate chip is your favorite but then you discover birch and marshmallows and blow your mind? For instance.
But what favorites are is an opening to talk more about what favorites are. Why do you like that thing that you like? Did you always like it? Since when? What drew you to it? What kept you there? What keeps you going back again and again? What about the favorite you can never go back to? What does that look like? What does it all mean?
Some of my favorites: honeycomb, eggs, black coffee, coffee drowning in cream, black jeans with a 10″ rise at the waist, Her Body and Other Parties, nail polish with gold sparkles, when I wake up and don’t need eye drops, spanking, water that is just below room temperature but not cold, getting everything done that needs to be done, a certain type of writing about California, waking up before dawn, eavesdropping in public without being rude or weird, when days start cold and get warmer, reading the type of book that feels intellectually alive and voracious, sunflowers.
So, what are your favorites? Your favorite your favorite food, your favorite book, your favorite movie, song, artist, pet, pet to dress up in human clothing, human clothing, time of day, time of year, category to have a favorite about or anything else. What was your favorite thing from this week?
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