When I recently took the online Indexing course at Ryerson, I had fun with the ice-breaker exercise to “index yourself.” Here’s what I came up with:

editing
  author’s voice
  balance and flow
  music, relevance (see also music)

family
  cousins, German (see also self-identification: Canadian)
  grandson
  partner and kids

music
  devotion to, early
  love/hate for
  silence and soundscape

recreation
  cycling, urban (see also self-identification: pinko)
  karate
  pool

self-identification
  Canadian, new-stock (see also family: cousins)
  guy, straight cis white (see also family: partner and kids)
  pinko, bike-riding (see also recreation: cycling)

Afterwards, in Will Ferguson’s novel 419, I came across a copy editor musing about the biographies she works on: “Indexes never seemed to get to the heart of the matter. There was never a heading for hope or fear. Or dreams, recalled. Smiles, remembered. Anger. Beauty … And why only one life? Why not the web of other lives that define us?”

So mine, too, is incomplete. But it may merit a quick scan. A moment of reflection. A chuckle, perhaps.