There is something very satisfying about making a list but I have never been able to figure out specifically why. A monthly feature in GQ magazine asks well known people for their list of “10 essential things they won’t do without.” These lists are often surprising because things on them vary from a rare kind of green tea in a bag together with grilled rice kernels, to a brand of cheap off the shelf available anywhere stain remover for clothes. In other words, what’s essential in your life is not necessarily rare, expensive or special. Everyone I know who has read the novel or seen the film HIGH FIDELITY immediately starts making lists (either on paper or in their head) of their favorite kinds of music— the ten most romantic songs. The ten best songs to get you going in the morning. The ten worst pop songs you ever heard.The five CD’s you’d take to a desert island, etc. Or how about the list of five things you must do tomorrow morning. Or the grocery list. That list of things you wish you could tell them to their face but you don’t have the nerve to do it yet. What I would buy if I were suddenly given millions. Even the list of the sort of lists you make is an interesting indication of who you are or where you are in your life. I know a woman who always makes a list of things she wants to fight with her husband about before she goes into battle with him. Or the child of a friend who starts making a list of what they want for Christmas literally a day after Christmas is over. Naturally the kid revises the list as the year goes on but they usually do begin to draw up the new one a day or two after the 25th. Do we make lists to put order in our lives? Or do we make them to figure out what we like or hate, desire, fear, need to embrace or avoid?