Sunday, February 1, 2004

Swimming Pool Philosophy

Somebody wrote this on, of all places, the chalkboard at the pool: "Life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think." Pretty heady stuff for a bunch of soggy jocks! It made me think though. Would that "thinkers" and "feelers" were so easily categorized. I’m certainly not one or the other. Sometimes I think I’m the worst of both worlds.

I’m a very inward person. I live 97% of my life inside my head. I’ve always been that way. I’m too sensitive, and when I’m hurt, I don’t fight…I just retreat into myself. I have bat-like hearing for anything negative. When it comes to compliments, strokes, admiration, atta-boys….I’m deaf as a post. I wish I knew why. If there were some horrible childhood experience that would explain this quirk, maybe I could work it out. But it just seems to be an essential part of the way I AM. Like I was born this way. So, am I one of those "feelers" for whom life is a tragedy? Maybe.

But I believe I’ve got a little bit of the "thinker" in me, too. Despite my magnetic attraction for negative energy, I still have the ability to stand outside myself and analyze things. When I start to slide too quickly or too deeply into that pit, I can yell, "Hold it!" and just stop for a second and get my bearings. Look at the situation with as little emotion as possible, and judge whether it really merits that headlong flight into myself. Laugh if I need to, or just say, "Whoa…this isn’t that important." It’s a good thing, really, that I have this ability. If I didn’t, they probably would have tossed me into the loony bin years ago. That doesn’t really make me a "thinker", though does it? Just a "feeler" with enough sense of self-preservation to know when to stop feeling.

I started this journal entry with the intention of proving that one is not either a thinker or a feeler, and using myself as an example that we are all both. What I’ve actually done is make a pretty strong case for myself being a card-carrying "feeler." But I sure don’t want to think of my life as a tragedy. So let’s just put that quote in the circular file….

5 comments:

  1. I felt like you were describing me when I read this post. I admit that I have a pretty dualistic way of looking at life, but some things just aren't as cut and dry as thinkers and feelers. Since I'm pretty constantly working on developing optimism as a personality trait, I think that life, for those of us with a foot in each camp, is an adventure. Sometimes, that means dodging bombs and landmines.

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  2. Somebody wrote this on, of all places, the chalkboard at the pool: "Life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think."

    I believe I am a thinker because life cracks me up when all is said and done....after I feel the tragedy of course. LOL

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  3. I would say that I'm a little of both too. I think the feeling side of me is louder--the thinker is the silent world inside my head that I don't do a lot of sharing with anyone.

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  4. I know I'm some of both - it's just that sometime one can definately overcome the other. And why would feeling necessarily lead to finding the tragic in life? I would argue that letting yourself feel is the way to truly experience joy. To stop thinking and take things at simple face value can allow one to open their heart.

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  5. Oh, ITA, nobody is all a thinker or all a feeler. Just depends. I'd much rather have a balance than to be on either extreme, anyway.

    And I'm totally with you on the compliments. I think too many of us take negative things to heart, and consider the compliments as something very nice. NOt that we *believe them, but we appreciate the kindness of the person who said them.
    Let's start believing them, okay? :-)

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