Joy Is Her Name

This is a list of things that bring me joy. Do not attempt to read between any lines; you will be disappointed to learn that no subtext lurks here. I merely hope to impart a spirit of ebullience: perhaps—god unwilling—you will find yourself staring absently at a wall, like I have found myself several times in the last month, vying to remember the last moment you experienced pure bliss and perhaps, in turn, you will remember this list. Perhaps you will even decide to make your own list, and return to it, over and over and over, until the world’s dastardly talons no longer scratch the surface of your merry armor. Perhaps. A girl can dream and a girl can dare to live joyously in this world of permanent tumult—absolutely nothing is stable under heaven. Salute to James Baldwin. Now back to the program (in no particular order):

1. PJ Harvey’s new slew of demo tapes

2. Pina (2011) by Wim Wenders (watching this is like injecting a shot of joy)

3. Tamales + Pimento Cheese + CHEESE

4. Listening to books on tape while taking “stupid little walks”

5. Agnes Martin’s chapel at SFMoMA

6. Peanut butter and jelly on a lightly toasted baguette

7. Inherent Vice (2014)

8. Pacific Baptisms

9. John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and the Church of Coltrane

10. Babies

11. Finding a recipe, cooking the recipe, wine, and family dinner

12. Dostoevsky (weird but true admission)

13. The Discipline of D.E (WSB + Gus Van Sant)

14. Nina Simone

15. Bibliomancy

16. Leonora Carrington’s paintings

17. Watercolors

18. FaceTiming my siblings, especially John (Good Afternoon, John)

19. “The Distance of the Moon” by Italo Calvino

20. A Knight’s Tale (2001)

21. DaBaby’s “Rockstar”

22. Learning new things (presently, macroeconomics?)

23. Horses

24. John Frusciante

25. Reed avocados

26. Libraries (you can still enjoy these online)

27. Scanning JSTOR

28. A made bed

29. The praying mantis that lives in the bush by my front door

30. Naming characters

31. Playing dominoes

32. Niki de Saint Phalle

33. organizing and scrapbooking

34. Jenny’s Ice Cream

35. Listening to strangers tell stories 

36. Croissants

37. California road trips

38. My sister Emma’s cooking

39. Stopping to smell the flowers

40. Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (1968)

41. Making lists (preferably in fading ombré colors)

42. Arbitrarily announcing, “That’s Hollywood, baby!”

43. Robert Altman flicks

44. Sting!

45. Alliteration (sue me, literary critics)

46. Dolly Parton

47. getting temporarily lost

48. Snow on mountains

49. New pens (ball point or felt tip only)

50. Being an occasional Luddite

See if you can make it to fifty, I dare you.—Eleanor Sheehan

Artwork: a detail from “Untitled #5” (1998) by Agnes Martin