iPod

I have tried very hard NOT to fall in love with material things in this blog.  And other than Paint and Vinegar, I've managed to avoid it.  I mean, I don't ever want to post that I am in love with a Coach purse or a Jaguar (which, by the way, will never be possessions of mine . . . not that I wouldn't like a Jaguar, you know . . . ), but I suspect it might become harder and harder to avoid this as the year goes on.

I am allowing myself to post about a material thing, my iPod, today, but it isn't the thing itself with which I am in love.  It is the thing that it contains, which isn't really material at all.  Obviously, I am in love with the music that my iPod holds, but I cannot dismiss this little marvel of an invention that allows me to select my own music and take it with me wherever I go.

I have a couple of iPods (mostly my kids' rejects) but I prefer the Classic iPod.  Although I have not updated my iTunes library in awhile, I have 2042 songs on my iPod, but here's what I think makes my iPod different from yours, maybe.  Every single song on my iPod was hand-picked by me.  In other words, I do not put an entire CD on my iPod; I select the songs from that CD that I really like and I let the others go.  Doing this is a labor of love.  I will purchase certain songs from iTunes, but not entire "albums."  Why is this important?  When I am listening to my iPod, I like every song that comes on shuffle and I don't have to skip or fast-forward through the ones that don't knock my socks off.

While I am a public radio fan Monday through Friday, their weekend line-ups often leave me unsatisfied.  My iPod to the rescue.  Today is such a day.  It's rainy outside on this Saturday, I am wasting time on the Internet, and my iPod is reminding me how much I love music.  My music.

On the flight home last night, I closed my eyes to reflect on the days spent on the beach, earbuds in place, soothed by the music I love.  I did not hear that child crying a few rows back, nor was I annoyed by the too-loud conversation of the people across the aisle.  If and when the FAA allows cell-phone use on flights, I know that I will have the means to shut out those conversations and thereby avoid being arrested for accosting a fellow passenger.  What's not to love about that?