Artistic Footprint

When I was growing up I would often eavesdrop on the question: are people good?

I always thought… why wouldn’t they? Why would people bother with not being good? how would that help us?

But good is not faith. It’s not love, heroism or fame, it’s not a deed or a duty, and it’s not a fantasy

Then I learned that a criminal can be right, or that people need to protect themselves. That everything you do for someone else, you are actually doing for yourself, and every time you fail at being good, you sink deeper into a hole of self wallowing. Its the times when you do something truly altruistic and pure, that benefits anyone but yourself, you are actually good.

The biggest lesson I learned from asking this question is… Am I good? The answer is quite simply, “I don’t know.” First of all, I can’t answer that, it’s up to my friends. But in a world where everyone is born genetically selfish in order to maintain self preservation, how can one find the time to be good? If your life is spent making ends meet and living on a dime, your acts of good will are unconventional, and aren’t understood by the materialistic. Everyone wants good things for themselves. Peace, love, happiness, a bit of adventure… modest goals for one person to make themselves happy. But other things can make us feel happy too. Gratitude. When someone thanks you, it gives you a feeling of worth and importance. Love. When someone loves you, it makes you feel necessary and capable. Attentiveness. When someone listens to you, you feel intelligent and informative.

Humans have a lot of differences with our fellow neighbours. Many animals have tear glands, but only humans cry. We can look at a picture of an injured dog and sympathize with it. We embrace things like music and art. We run into burning buildings for each other and cure diseases that we aren’t diagnosed with. Perhaps the characteristics of a colonized species? or do we possess a very rare trait?

So I decided to counterract the comical pessimism (or Juvenalian satire for you linguists) with this here List of 1000 Awesome Things.

I must admit that I feel quite uncomfortable with this conformity to the norm, but know this: the interesting thing I noticed in writing the Shitty things and Awesome things is that I was happy doing both. I laughed to myself as I noticed the bad as well as the good, and in doing so it seemed important to verbalize each point to recognize it’s importance.

Without further ado, here it is (in no particular order):

1. Getting drunk before a flight.
2. Having a beer in the shower.
3. Beer in general.
4. Popping bubble wrap.
5. Killing a pesky bug.
6. Waking up in a pool of drool.
7. Snowboarding.
8. Sex.
9. Lucid Dreams.
10. Hanging out with people that let you be yourself.
11. Big Dumps (powder snow)
12. Lying in a heap of clothes that just came out of the dryer.
13. Hammering nails into wood.
14. The smell of cedar.
15. Thunderstorms
16. Heavy Rain
17. Campfires.
18. Thai Food.
19. Mountaintops.
20. Ice cold water when you’re really thirsty.
21. Jumping into water at the perfect temperature.
22. Going over hills really fast.
23. Being on a flight and having 3 seats to yourself (only happened to me once)
24. Really good fucking guitar solos.
25. Flying in little airplanes.
26. Being so fucking happy that you feel giddy inside.
27. The tired and tingly feeling you get after a long hard day of work.
28. Breaking conversation to listen to a good part of a song.
29. Chuck Norris.
30. drinking and painting.
31. When you know someone loves you but they never say it.
32. When you know your life will never fail because a good friend won’t let that happen.
33. The feel of a PINT glass in your hand.
34. Lesbians.
35. Watchin the game and drinkin Beers.
36. Having a skilled Wingman.
37. Waking up in the morning beside a REALLY awesome chick.
38. Taking a sick day.
39. Watching everyone else go to work while you are out having fun.
40. Intimidating high school bratty kids.
41. Pipe Cleaners.
42. Windchimes.
43. Dogs.
44. Sex in the morning.
45. A self-induced, spontaneous laugh.
46. Hockey Night in Canada.
47. Ted.com.
48. Picking out a Huge Booger.
49. Egg Nog.
50. Pull through parking spots.
51. Farting when no one else is around.
52. The feel of a cold beer on ice in your hand.
53. Working on your car or anything mechanical.
54. Snow.
55. Catching someone picking their nose.
56. Moustaches
57. Turning up the volume on Van Halen.
58. Top Gun.
59. Huge unnecessary explosions in action movies.
60. Getting mail you actually want!
61. Cars with character.
62. Sex in hotel rooms.
63. Parties in hotel rooms.
64. Hour showers in hotel rooms.
65. Any hot tub in a mountain village.
66. Being an English speaking white male.
67. Being in the fucking zone.
68. Crazy drunken stories.
69. Fulfilling a stereotype that you do not posess.
70. Beer from the east.
71. Porn (including snowboard, biking, and surfing videos)
72. Being drunk enough to beat any fucker at pool.
73. Rebecca Romain Stamos.
74. Kate Bosworth
75. Kate Beckinsale.
76. Rachel McAdams.
77. Getting that picture that you know no-one else can get.
78. Street meet and pizza.
79. Shredding the Gnar.
80. Beer and Steak.
81. Massages.
82. Chicks that shred.
83. Watching people walk home with bags of shit tickets under their arms.
84. Drunken Irish dancing with friends.
85. Leashless dog parks.
86. Warm Cookies.
87. Garlic.
88. Scaring little children.
89. Hockey highlights.
90. Closing out a bar.
91. Fresh baked bread.
92. Having a trusty steed.
93. Laughing till you cry.
94. 24s of bottled buck-a-beer.
95. Buying Beer in Ontario.
96. Surf n’ Turf.
97. Mullets.
98. Women with Mullets.
99. Bob and Doug Mackenzie.
100. Fresh Asphalt.
101. Bacon.
102. Spooning.
103. Thwarting Someone’s evil Scheme.
104. Being on the Fucking Ball.
105. Switching from stinky board boots to cool, fresh skateshoes.
106. Shooting the moon in hearts.
107. Samuel Jackson, Bruce Willis, and Bennicio Del Torro.
108. Shorthanded goals.
109. Tumbleweeds.
110. Scars.
111. Calling in sick the day after st, Paddy’s day.
112. Cooking a chicken with a beer can shoved up its ass.
113. Getting paid to shit, eat, or sleep.
114. Drive-in Movie theatres.
115. Wiping snot on the thumb of your glove.
116. Peanut butter and Chocolate.
117. Watching birds walk.
118. Cans of beer that say 8 pack right on the rim.
119. Sleeping in the sun with your hat over your face.
120. Taking the Stairs.
121. Sittin in the back of the bus.
122. Chicks that drive jeeps.
123. Snatching free wireless.
124. Getting in a car through a window.
125. The feel of new shoes.
126. home-cooked meals from mom.
127. A Pile of shoes in the doorway of a really great party.
128. Wreck Beach in Vancouver.
129. The Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Ab.
130. Having your beer cooled by Mother Earth.
131. Pulling into a crowded place as cliche as possible.
132. Restaurants that require an intricate procedure to order the best menu item.
133. Fireflies.
134. Chinese fire drills.
135. Muffin tops.
136. Skipping school.
137. Finding things you’ve been looking for, for a long time.
138. glitches in the english language that require you to repeat the last word you wrote (see above)
139. Beer league.
140. Moomoos.
141. Whoopi Cushions.
142. Reading through an old birthday card and finding 20 bucks.
143. Getting to leave school for any reason including being sick.
144. A real successful hand-fart
145. Giving a dynamite bum or dutch ovening someone.
146. Hairnation rock.
147. Being cozy and warm in a cold and wet place.
148. Cops that let you off the hook.
149. Vengeance.
150. Old people that still make out.
151. Roadtrips.
152. Taking flowers from a first-date’s garden and then pretending you went to the effort of buying them yourself.
153. Moms and Grandmas that go to their kids’ gigs.
154. Asserting dominance with flatulence.
155. TSN top 10
156. Red green
157. Forts and treehouses
158. Skicutting your own avalanche
159. Medieval times
160. The sound of ice cubes in a glass or a glass filling up
161. Anything with bbc and david attenborough
162. Driving barefoot
163. Kristen bell
164. Soundtracks to a massacre
165. Resting up after some great first aid
166. Watching thunderstorms
167. A real pint glass
168. Patio lanterns
169. Going straight to the front of the line of douchebag tourists at a bar you’re a local at
170. Drinking beer while cooking
171. Going for ice cream
172. Sex in cars
173. Hammocks
174. Sunroofs
175. Trailerpark drama
176. Community gardens
177. T-tops, muscle cars, el caminos
178. Eatin dinner on the front porch
179. Climbing trees
180. Kool aid
181. Barack Obama
182. Good old fashioned vandalism
183. Steven colbert; if you’re smart enough to not believe anything he says
184. Washing puppies
185. Ellen page
186. Forest service roads
187. Holy shit handles
188. Evan rachel wood
189. Grilled cheese with REAL cheese
190. Kick me signs
191. Pilly cubes
192. Finding a great spot to pop your bottle on a table
193. Playin it sandlot style
194. Acoustic Guitar in a thunderstorm
     

What makes YOU feel good?