intellectual cafe
before i get started on the entry of the day, this just in from an astute reader via text message: "fun new word for the day that my son discovered, it is epizuexis which means the repetition of a word for emphasis." now that bears repeating!
this weekend i attended the portland meetup "intellectual cafe". completely out of my comfort zone and knowing only the friend i went with, i thought i would just eat, drink and be silent. the topic was "immigration". i've never been one to retain facts. i can write poems about them or notice how they affect people's feelings, but the latest news and legislature hasn't always been my cuppa.
about an hour into the discussion (which involved 20+ people of all types gathered around three huge wooden tables) i got brave. i said something. then i said something else. responded to the woman across from me. challenged the man to the side of me. rerouted the conversation back to the original question. it was fun! and i learned a lot about an otherwise foreign topic (no pun intended).
it made alot of sense along with this tidbit sent from another alert reader in terms of personality and development. i am an INFJ on myer's-briggs (introverted, intuitive, feeling, judging) thus the emphasis on right brain, emotion, etc. but the transition to logic and facts can best be described:
"at midlife (that gave me pause, but whatever) an INFJ can best continue developing the thinking function in the form of logic and the pursuit of theory. the pleasure of taking a theoretical model and applying it to a situation may be a source of interest, which an INFJ may have been neglecting. while continuing to pursue the person-to-person in feeling type relationships, at midlife (they keep using that word, i do not think it means what they think it means!) INFJ's may want to get more involved in working with NT's (intuitive thinkers) who offer a dimension not dominant in NF's and vice versa."
left brain hemisphere, here i come...
this weekend i attended the portland meetup "intellectual cafe". completely out of my comfort zone and knowing only the friend i went with, i thought i would just eat, drink and be silent. the topic was "immigration". i've never been one to retain facts. i can write poems about them or notice how they affect people's feelings, but the latest news and legislature hasn't always been my cuppa.
about an hour into the discussion (which involved 20+ people of all types gathered around three huge wooden tables) i got brave. i said something. then i said something else. responded to the woman across from me. challenged the man to the side of me. rerouted the conversation back to the original question. it was fun! and i learned a lot about an otherwise foreign topic (no pun intended).
it made alot of sense along with this tidbit sent from another alert reader in terms of personality and development. i am an INFJ on myer's-briggs (introverted, intuitive, feeling, judging) thus the emphasis on right brain, emotion, etc. but the transition to logic and facts can best be described:
"at midlife (that gave me pause, but whatever) an INFJ can best continue developing the thinking function in the form of logic and the pursuit of theory. the pleasure of taking a theoretical model and applying it to a situation may be a source of interest, which an INFJ may have been neglecting. while continuing to pursue the person-to-person in feeling type relationships, at midlife (they keep using that word, i do not think it means what they think it means!) INFJ's may want to get more involved in working with NT's (intuitive thinkers) who offer a dimension not dominant in NF's and vice versa."
left brain hemisphere, here i come...
I'm an INFJ as well, Lanette, and I can *totally* relate to that transition. I've taken the Myers-Briggs inventory several times throughout my life, and while I NEVER seem to get less "I" or "J", my "F" has nearly balanced out with the "T" in my late-20s and 30s. Goofy, but true. :o)
ReplyDeletethat is so interesting, thanks for sharing! it's funny because at first it feels like just a personal shift/epiphany until you realize it is a predictable human growth & development phase; more universal. definitely a bigger picture for understanding others and ourselves. how has your "T" grown specifically?
ReplyDeleteWow, for the rarest of personality types, there certainly seem to be a lot of us out there!
ReplyDeleteSorry, I wasn't thinking much about the 'midlife' part of the comment when I sent it, only about the growth from feeling to thinking. Makes me think of L'Engle's book, Walking On Water and how as an artist, she gained a greater appreciation for physics and biology and other 'thinky' subjects later in life.
Not that art doesn't take brain power, just a different type.
that is my FAVORITE BOOK of all times! it helped to form my philosophy of creativity when i was in high school/college! i completely agree with you and was just joking about the midlife part, which is completely relative anyway! who's to say what mid-life is for each of us? :)
ReplyDeleteEven though we're rare, maybe it seems like there are so many INFJs here just because we gather at places like Lanette's blog, a safe way to process our thoughts and share little snippets of ourselves in a relatively safe & controlled fashion, not so much in the public spotlight. The "E"s are just out there chatting away face to face and living their outward lifestyle. :o)
ReplyDeletei'm glad you have found a safe spot here! it's funny because i'm fairly extroverted, but what tips me towards the "I" is how much time i need to myself to think/be quiet and process. do you have a blog i could follow?
ReplyDelete