Getting to Know Me...

Getting to know all about me, when I am with me, getting to know what to say, etc.

It struck me this morning that though I am 65 years old, I am still curious about myself, who I am, what my values are, how they affect my relationships and my life generally. But "who am I and what is my purpose?" are questions we humans ask ourselves from day one. That's one of the reasons I enjoy little quizzes like "Harry Potter character" and "what book am I?" and "Cadaver Worth" and "Blog Rating" and "What Oldtime Movie Star am I?".

The quizzes themselves seem unlikely to reveal new information, but when they show us ourselves through a new and maybe quirky lens, we get a new look at who we are. The Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory may be the most involved and best-grounded of the pop quizzes which we've talked about lately, but it too offers insight into "who am I and what is my purpose?".

Can a human being be too introspective? Navel-gazing has gotten a bad rap because of some of the extremes humans go to, but self-examination and self-critique are essential elements in developing a life of right relationships and productive work.

It's been interesting to me, for example, that my answers to the "what book am I" quiz resulted in a phrase like this: "While most people haven't heard of you, you're a really good and interesting person. Rather clever and witty, you crack a lot of jokes about the world around you. You do have a serious side, however, where your interest covers the homeless
and the inequalities of society. You're good at bringing people together, but they keep asking you what your name means."

When I read it, I thought, this guy's been reading my blog or sitting in on some of the jam sessions I go to on Thursday nights. Because that's my life, both on the blog and off. (Strangely, it hinged on the answer to the "tea " question, because when I answered it one way, a different book came up, one which didn't resonate. When I thought about my answer to the tea question, I realized I didn't answer it correctly, went back and changed it, and voila! a book which did resonate.) And people have always asked me about my name: "Why do you call yourself Kit when your real name is such and such?"

And Hermione? She's my favorite HP character of all, even better than Maggie Smith. Being a half-Muggle myself (in UU parlance, that might be a variety of things: Christian UU, blue-collar UU, bright but not academic UU, religiously-bilingual UU), I admire Hermione's integrity and loyalty to her friends and her ability to be a peer with boys her own age, even when they don't understand her.

I'm not sure what to say about Carole Lombard, except that WOW! It never had occurred to me I might have something in common with an oldtime movie star. And the Cadaver quiz's revelation that my flabby body would be worth $4765 if I were dead was startling only in its assertion that my flab was worth more than someone else's toned torso. Not sure what that means.

No, self-examination via oddball quizzes is useful and even helpful, in our insatiable quest for self-knowledge! Or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.