I like...

I've lately been reading the journals of L.M. Montgomery, author of the delightful Anne series and the even sweeter Emily one. These journals reveal the person in the way some don't: they are honest and painful with moments of joy.

One of my favorite passages is a response to Ruskin's observation that "Taste is not only a part and index of morality - it is the only morality. The first and last and closest trial question to any living creature is 'What do you like?' Tell me what you like and I'll tell you what you are":

"I like my own children and all nice, fat, clean babies anywhere. I like all kinds of books if they're well written whether they are religious or philosophical or sentimental or cynical or humorous or exaggerated or indecent. I like writing books myself. I like cats and horses and some dogs. I like curling breakers, woods and mountains and stars and trees and flowers. I like nicely furnished houses. I like good Victrola records and the music of the violin. I like pretty china and glass and old heirloom things. I like a cosy bed and a tight hot water bottle. I like to be kissed by the right kind of a man. I like jewels and pretty clothes. I like doing fancy work and I like cooking and I like eating the nice things other people cook. I like motoring and driving and walking. I like a systematic life with occasional dashings over the tracings. I like open fires and moonlit nights. I like nice chatty letters. I like compliments. I like to see a person I dislike snubbed. I like my own looks when my hair is dressed a certain way. I like a snack at bed time. I like going out to dinner. I like helping other people and I like to be very independent of help myself. I like sunsets and pictures and sea bathing. I like keeping a journal. I like reading old letters. I like housecleaning - I do! I like entertaining the race of Joseph. I like day-dreaming. I like going to concerts, good movies and plays. I like - or used to like before I wedded a minister - dancing and playing whist. I like reading the Bible - most of it...I like listening to good sermons. I like gardening. I like good spruce gum. I like my husband. I like people to like me. I like a good joke. I like rainy days. I like old homesteads. I like people who agree with me. I like chocolate caramels and Brazil nuts. I like - or liked in pre-prohibition days - Miss Oxtoby's dandelion wine. I like perfumes. I like a little gossip with carefully selected people. I like shopping at Eaton's."

~ L.M. Montgomery, 31 January 1920

Selected Journals, Volume II

(ed. by Mary Rubio & Elizabeth Waterston)

A kindred spirit? I think so. Somehow, she's a friend...

Soon: my own likes list.