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February 5, 2009

This Wonderful Life

Anonymous The Cooperstown Crier Thu Feb 05, 2009, 10:03 AM EST

What Are Your 25 Things?

If you’re already a Facebook user, you know exactly what I mean when I ask what your 25 things are. If you’re not on Facebook, I’ll take just a minute to explain. Facebook is an online tool where you can create your own profile and keep in touch with friends and family, and even meet new friends. You can also see lots of photos of your children, grandchildren and potential employees behaving badly at drunken college parties. So it’s a lot of fun.

In the past few weeks, there has been a note going around where people will write 25 random things about themselves (often taking hours to compose the randomness), and then ``tag’’ 25 friends, who are instructed to write their own 25 things list, and tag 25 of their friends. It’s like an environmentally friendly chain letter.

And like many chain letters, some of us tried to resist this one the first few times we were tagged. I mean, it’s bad enough to maintain a personal presence on a website without publishing a long list devoted entirely to yourself. That’s just narcissistic. You’re no better than a newspaper columnist, at that point.

Slowly, they started falling prey, though. Even friends who rolled their eyes at the list started writing them. Some did it tongue-in-cheek, some did it with zero cynicism, some did it in ways that really took my breath away. This week, I finally did my own, which you can read at the blog — moremindfulfamily. wordpress. com û or you can read if you add me to your friends on Facebook.

The reason I broke down and wrote my list was that I loved reading the lists my friends posted. Some of these friends are new, so these lists illuminate lives about which I know very little. Other friendships go back many years, and I learn as much by the things they leave out as I do by the things they highlight.

My new friend Jeannine and I share a favorite poem, ``The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.’’ Her favorite line is ``Do I dare and do I dare disturb the universe?’’

My new friend Kim bucked the system and titles her list, “My life in 25 Bumper Stickers, T-shirt Slogans, and Fridge Magnets.”

Her list, as well as the way she presented it, tells me we will be good friends.

Meanwhile, my longtime friend Rebecca went with the title, ``25 Ways I am a Special Snowflake: Let Me Show You Them.’’ Rebecca is a special snowflake — and she would also get along wonderfully with Kim. Maybe I can introduce them.

I learned that the next time I want to plan a vacation, I should call my friend Johanna, whom I have known since ninth grade. Our contact has been sporadic in the past, oh, 18 years, but I learned that she is a travel aficionado who creates files of information in order to be prepared when airfare suddenly drops.

I learned that a Japanese man made a doll of my friend James, who is moving, and who I hope will keep in touch. I also learned that his lovely wife, Kami, punched a clown just moments after their engagement. My friend Kristin has always wanted to open a dessert shop. I’ve tasted her desserts; she would make a million dollars.

Tobi’s favorite food is peanut butter.

Pia has a cat named Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

The sound of static makes Jahna go out-of-hermind, blood-in-the-water mean and crazy.

It is fascinating what people will reveal.

What about you? What are your 25 Things.

Elizabeth Trever Buchinger is utterly unique, just like everyone else on Facebook.

You can read her 25 at www.moremindfulfamily. wordpress.com and share your own list. You can also email her at villagewordsmith@gmail.com