5.8.10

I Before E

The youth director at our parish is an outgoing, really-quite-handsome, teddy-bear-of-a guy.  My teens, who've been on mission trips with him that included swimming sessions as relaxation, claim he has angel wings.  That's just wrong.  He needs to go in for a good wax job to take care of those.  But I digress.

His main attribute is his personality, not his angel wings.  Like my middle daughter, he can talk to a doorknob and charm it off the door.  One of his off-hand comments about Mr. Gaelic didn't surprise me.  He thinks, accurately enough, that Mr. Gaelic is very quiet and reserved.  A typical introvert in the Myers-Briggs scale. 

The youth director received the shock of his life to learn that my Myers-Briggs always comes back listing me as an introvert.  With a great big I.

His mouth fell open. 

"I work at it."

He acknowledged my success at appearing to be an extrovert and asked, "Isn't it tiring?"

"Very." 

5 comments:

  1. As pack animals, introversion is not valued in our society but I think it should be.

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  2. Yes, it is very tiring! INFP, here. It takes a great deal of energy to block others from taking my energy, or giving me theirs, whichever it is..Good call.

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  3. Hmmm - this is exactly what I was musing on this very day - I have come to believe that we are 'really' the person others see, not the person that WE feel. Jules Feiffer had a cartoon strip relating to this once. A tough character (Fran, the Woman of Steel) was musing thru several panels how she was a quivering mass of jelly and how, to protect herself, she added layer upon layer of steel to her character or personality or whatever. In the final panel she says (roughly), "And then, one day I looked: I was steel all through!". (Odd too, that you should call this I before E because I once again had to, as I always have to, go back and correct the way I typed 'believe'). We are in sync, today. Be very afraid.

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  4. I'm both, depending on the day. Some might call it schizo.

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  5. @Laoch, down time is necessary to everyone. So I believe.

    @Jean, I never thought of it as others "giving me their" energy.

    @David, where can I find you online?

    @Angie, but who are you really? Have a seat on my couch and tell me how that makes you feel. :)

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