Have you ever said something about yourself, and then immediately thought “I never put that together before – but it’s so true”?
The other day, a couple of my staffers were teasing me about my reaction to some development or other (I don’t even remember what it was), and I said, “Yeah, well, that’s me – I’m a laid-back control freak.” And I immediately laughed – as they did – because that’s me in a nutshell. I absolutely want to know exactly what’s going on – but I rarely get upset about any of it.
Another one, also quite recent – I was discussing books with a friend, and saying how much I was enjoying Cloud Atlas, which I was in the middle of. He said he’d picked it up in a bookstore, but didn’t think he’d enjoy it – too convoluted. I personally enjoy books and movies where you have to figure out what’s going on as it unfolds (movies and TV, too, within limits – though there has to be some actual story there when you’re done, “Twin Peaks” just pissed me off). “It’s the puzzle-solver in you,” said my friend. “Personally, it just annoys me.” Wow. This is a smart guy – I’d assumed all smart people like books where you figure it out as you go along – but no, this is another description of myself I’d never stepped back and noticed before.
It’s odd having these two incidents within a week or two of each other – I think of myself as having a pretty fair degree of self-awareness, yet I can still be startled by new insights.
I was recently asked how did I meld my tree-hugging liberalism with being a member of the NRA. Not really the same thing, but it is rare that people know you well enough to understand your dichotomies. Then again, when you think about the phrase “you always hate in others what is most similar to you.” carries many truths. We lack perspective.
Someone meeting me in person after only e-mail asked me what I looked like so they’d spot me, and I said, “I look just like Audrey Hepburn, if Audrey Hepburn had been a fat old Jew.”
It was just off the top of my head, but it was so spot-on I use it a lot now.
I hate to break it to you, but that combination–tree hugger and NRA member–is pretty common. At least, in my world it is. A lot of the wildlife- or habitat conservation people I know are hunters, and there are lots of conservation organizations–Ducks Unlimited, for example–who have hunters as a major part of their donor base.
I know that’s somewhat off-topic, but I really don’t see being both pro-habitat preservation and pro-gun ownership as a contradiction.
I once described myself as having fallen off the top of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Strangely enough, nobody has contradicted that one.
One I came up with after giving up tweaking (and tweaking and tweaking and tweaking) some video filters.:
“I’m a perfectionist at heart, I’m just too lazy to be perfect.”
And it’s true. I like things to be perfect, but I always hit a point of ‘eh, screw it’ before I actually get there. I have one cleaning script I’m still not entirely happy with, and I keep thinking about adding another filter or two to it, or adjusting one that’s already there. The thing already runs so slow (even without the sharpening filter, which is quite slow by itself) that I have to turn the filters off to be able to scrub through the video. I just never actually get around to it.
Whenever someone points out some aspect of my character in a semi- or not-so-semi-critical manner, I just tell them I was born that way - I’m a wild animal.