Tonight I spent a lot of time listening to music. I think I have a slight addiction to music. Let me reword that. I think I have an addiction to music. When I hear a song that I like but don’t know, I immediately write down the lyrics somewhere so I can look it up later. And then I spend time listening to other songs by that band. The worst ones are the old bands that are still around. Because usually my process of deciding whether or not the band is worth listening to consists of looking them up on Wikipedia and Youtubing all of their singles. Old bands usually have many singles. One such example is Aerosmith.

Anyway, I decided not to make this night totally unproductive by partaking in a pointless task. How unproductive. I compiled twenty songs that I have been listening to quite a bit in the past month or so. I have always been fond of making lists.

Sun – Daphne Loves Derby
Love is a Fast Song – Copeland
This is Twice Now – Lydia
She Doesn’t Get It – The Format
The Road to Jericho is Lined With Starving People – This Providence
Everything’s Right – Matt Wertz
Crimson Red – Holiday Parade
The Last to Know – Sherwood
LFTP – We Shot the Moon
Still Fighting It – Ben Folds
Everybody’s Changing – Keane
Break Even – The Script
Retrace – Anberlin
Streetcorner Symphony – Rob Thomas
Tong Hua – Guang Liang
This Ain’t a Love Song – Bon Jovi
Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas
Here I Go Again – Whitesnake
Paradise City – Guns n’ Roses
Jeremy – Pearl Jam

A friend of mine pointed out something recently that I’ve never thought of before. Allow me to provide some background information regarding this conversation. We were eating dinner, and I was eating fried rice. The fried rice had a variety of vegetables in it. I don’t often enjoy eating vegetables. The said question was along the lines of, “If that fried rice had no rice in it, would you still eat it?” After a moment of pondering, I realized that I wouldn’t have. Or if I did, I would be less happy doing it. After all, all that’s left is vegetables. At this moment, I realized how important rice was. And similarly, how important water was in vegetable soup. Fried rice and vegetable soup, to me at least, come with more pleasant connotations, so I am less opposed to them. The placebo effect? Also, perhaps the flavor of vegetables is more diluted in such things. Because of the said conditions, I am more prone to eat/enjoy the vegetables. Anyhow, I’ve come up with a life application concerning this.

I usually don’t eat carrots by themselves. I usually don’t eat green peas by themselves. But if they are present together with rice, I eat them. Everybody has flaws. Look at the specific flaw of a person, and it will be ugly. It won’t taste good. But the flaw is an ingredient to the total person. Put the flaws together and add some grace, and the flaws won’t be as obvious/annoying. The Application: We can learn to enjoy the presence of people around us if we focus on the person and not the flaw.

Well said Larry.

Don’t flatter yourself Larry.

– Larry