I have written about this subject before but I fear I have
failed miserably at getting my idea across that the human personality is very
complex and always in state of flux or change. As we go through life
circumstances cause change in things that we do and how we go about them.
A simple example for me is Walt the Woodworker who was part
of my personality for a long time when I had the physical space to actually
have a decent shop with all the tools. Now Walt does not exist on his own, he
is only how I perceive that part of my makeup. Walt is now retired because it
is simply not practical to have a shop in your apartment and I also have lost
the desire to do woodworking because quality wood is very hard to acquire now
and it also is very costly.
So you probably have similar people in your makeup
such as Terry the Tennis Guy or Gal who may no longer play because a physical
injury makes that difficult or perhaps Terry still plays but at a slower pace
now and does so in a social environment like a club.
One of my most unfavourite members of my team is Helen the
Housekeeper. At times, I want to shoot her because she is just plain lazy and
her picture would appear next to the word procrastination in the dictionary. Of
course, she is not real but she is part of my makeup partially due to the fact
that I am the youngest of three boys and I was spoiled by my Mom and I still am
not good at making my bed and doing the dishes. I no longer have a dishwasher
so Helen can’t use that trick of hiding them for a week inside the dishwasher.
But my Helen is getting better since I have tried to address that problem by
trying some of those e-cloths and getting better dish scrubbers and using
hydrogen peroxide along with anti-bacterial soap so when she gets around to
doing the dishes they are at least much cleaner than before. Perhaps you have a
Helen the Housekeeper that is as bad as mine but hopefully you are not as lazy
as I am.
Another one whose picture is on top is Pierre the Chef. I
quickly found out that I am no Pierre since I am more of just a short order
cook who can make unique stuff with my microwave, barbecue, Zuko pop maker and
J A Henckels environmentally friendly skillet. So he has kind of evolved in to
a blend of personalities that would include Baxter the Baker and Luigi Tartufo
the Sing in the Kitchen Guy (just the guy that prepares the stuff to cook) and
end up being more like Rambler the Hash Slinger which is what I do best so I
have found after all these years. You may be like this as well in your
evolution of culinary expertise because we all burnt a few grilled cheese
sandwiches along the way.
The other picture is another member of my particular team
(over 50 at last count, not all active). I refer to him as Otto the Out of Left
Field Guy. He used to scare the b’Jesus out of me and some of my friends
because I couldn't get my head around what he was up to. He represents the
creative juices that flow in the back areas of the brain and he always seem to
be the most active about 4 in the morning. Matt the Musician and Gus the Guitar
player seem to think he makes them a better musician but it is hard to know if
you are actually playing better at that time of the morning.
Recently I penned a few songs based on what “Otto” was
saying I should try and lo and behold they are not bad. Max the Music Composer,
Matt, Gus and Chuckie the Computer Geek are all working on that project now.
Yep, it does sound like I have a few screws loose but I know
that isn’t the case.
As you get older you sometimes actually get a better
perspective on where you are travelling in this trip called life. I like what I
see now.
And Raymond the Writer has had a lot to do with making
things much clearer. Sitting down at the computer keyboard and writing whatever
comes to mind has been a very enjoyable journey and especially when Gorby the Gamer, Chuckie
and Infinity the Internet Explorer learned how to share better.
I do have a better understanding of who I am now. I can
identify the players on my team and whether they are active or just retired. I
think what really slowed the process down was the fact that one player that we
all have can take too much time in your life. That would be Darth Vader the Guy
We Don’t Like Much. He is really just negative waves, the dark side and the
roadblock to getting anything useful out of one’s life. When you learn how to
shut him up you are going in the right direction.
So you might want to play this game and get to know yourself
a little better and sit down with a pen and paper or keyboard and screen and just
go through life and identify your team players. You will possibly run into your
Freddie the Fisherman, Phil the Photographer, JC the Skier, Bran the
Businessman (hated that guy, good friends with Darth) and a whole host of
others that are not part of my team.
We are all different individuals and the sum of our
experiences and that is why we are all so unique and thank goodness for that.
If we were only one of 4 personalities we would likely all be accountants,
lawyers, politicians, doctors and engineers. No they are not all bad. The point
is that if you don’t open yourself up to your Otto the Out of Left Field Guy
you do become more one dimensional in how you do things and that is not much
fun.
So explore who you are and were and embrace the members of your
team that make you special. There isn't another person out there exactly like
you and that is what makes the human race so damn interesting.
Time to end this subject, sing it Sheryl.
…all I wanna’ doOo is have some fun…
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