When I was in Armenia we'd hold our weekly planning sessions: we'd figure out who we were going to see and what we were going to teach them and I drove my companions crazy. Because we'd be talking about Wednesday afternoon's appointment with Anush and we'd go to call and coordinate, but while she was on the phone I'd suggest making a couple other calls and I'd run to the kitchen for just a sec to check on the soup and remember that we needed dill so I'd start putting together a shopping list and looking dill up in the dictionary which would remind me that Karine need a lesson on the Word of Wisdom which I would start planning and suddenly an hour would've (productively, of course) passed when we would get back to Anush's lesson. There was an enumerated list we were supposed to follow. Which I only did under extreme duress. So we got the job done but more than one companion marveled that we managed to get everything done under such chaotic conditions. (I filed this trait under "weird" and "to work on" and try to be better at seeing things through.)
Today I spent all day researching. I started in the MLA International Bibliography, went from an article there to some definitional terms in Wikipedia (dear Deep Ecology: are you for real? Also, check out the post for Arne Naess for some pure Wikipedia gold) then was distracted by the muppets (see previous post) then got back to work finding books on ecofeminism, moved toward the Jane Eyre end of things for a couple of hours, ended up in the library choosing unplanned books from the stacks and almost not being able to bring them home because I've reached my limit (of 50).
So writing this thing is still daunting, but I think this personality quirk treats me well occasionally. And that happens a lot, you know? What potential weaknesses of yours rear into awesome?
the arne naess wiki entry reminds me of monty python. but then what doesn't? ->a trait I can sometimes I use for good.
ReplyDeleteactually, truthfully, there's a reason I get really excited about film. Some of my quirks make me seem entirely ineffectual and a real drag in a lot of professional realms. But in film I can bring them to good use, I feel vindicated.
My silliness quotient is quite high. (I don't know how to make this thing link to my last post, but if you look at November 23rd, about tooth fairying, I don't think I will have to make any further argument for this.)
ReplyDeleteLast night a certainpersonio was sitting next to me at FHE, and I thought to myself: you think you like me because I am attractive, but the truth of the matter is that you don't, in fact, like me; you are just attracted to my prettiness. You tolerate my silliness, but you don't really appreciate it. What I need in a man-- among other things-- is someone who actually needs, and knows that he needs, the level of silliness that I would bring into his life.
I love the crazy, chaotic aspects of your personality (possibility because it makes mine seem normal). I also love, love the things about me that are both strengths and weaknesses. I feel like it's so much more interesting to work on things that you shouldn't entirely eliminate and should figure when to tap into. Analyzing nuanced details drives my scholarship, my life, and my eternal salvation? Maybe.
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