Someone asked me the other night to name the favorite place I had ever been. I drew a complete blank. I’ve been a lot of great places, and enjoyed each of them in their own way. But I have never really thought to rank them. There are places I like and other places I don’t like so much, but I could never settle on just one favorite.
I run into the same dilemma when setting up online access to an account, and have to answer questions for the annoying list of password hints. What’s my favorite color? Are you kidding me? Color is a beautiful aspect to the visual world, offering an endless range of possibilities. One thing that makes color so wonderful and useful is the fact that you don’t have to look at the same one all the time. Variety is the very essence of what color is all about. Why would I possibly want to limit myself to a favorite? What’s my favorite team? Well, first of all, that depends on the sport. But even within a sport, though there are definitely teams I root for and others that I root against, that actually changes based on the season, the situation, and the opponent. Eighteen months from now, when I’m trying to retrieve my forgotten password, there’s no way I’m going to remember my answer to this question.
But my real issue is bigger than that. I simply reject the concept of favorites. Oh yes, I definitely have very strong preferences. Yet to my mind, there’s a big difference between preferring something and making it into a favorite. Does this indicate some sort of personality defect in me? Perhaps, but I’d like to think not. Making something into a favorite has the feel of rejecting everything else. Making something into a favorite confers a kind of unconditional loyalty to it, that’s probably unwarranted.
Isn’t there already enough needless judgment in the world? Don’t ask me to pick a favorite. I’m working diligently on finding a way to love it all.
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