(M)iTunes

 I like collecting things. Before I recognized that impulse and started trying to limit and repurpose it, I often ended up with groups of things just because they belonged together and for no other purpose than it had been fun to find them all. You can waste a lot of time and money that way.

I do not want to know what I’ve spent on iTunes. I enjoy music like any good Appalachian, and iTunes is willing to meet a large swath of my musical curiosity and curatorial impulses. It started with a slightly naughty need to listen to all that music that was the devil’s tempting and thus not in my adolescent collection. I decided I do like Cher and The Beatles and Elton John and a lot of other music. My interest has now come full circle and I’m gathering up the hymns of my youth. It’s fun to choose amongst all the different artists and time periods for these classics. I wish we still sang them at church. 

It is a collection that doesn’t clutter, is large enough to reward organizing efforts, and soothes the savage beast as someone was always saying when I was young. I get my money’s worth out of every $1.29.