Thursday, December 14, 2006

Castell

No reason in particular for posting this except to add some color to this webpage. This is a photo I took but I don't remember where - Victoria I think, last summer.

Personalities and such

I am sometimes a big fan of online personality tests (as the prev post indicates). Its mildly entertaining and satisfying to my neurotic self-indulgent side...After all if the whole world does not understand me, at least an online site does!

Can you really summarize a person or the essence of a person in a few words? And if you can, can you believe it? Is that all you are? Or do you start acting like that in a manner of fulfilling your own prophesy? One of the challenges I am facing in writing my book is the charecterization - trying to create distinct believable personalities by describing their words, thoughts and actions. Its something that separates the writers I enjoy reading from the others. Take Candace Bushnell for example (yet again). None of the charecters in either book I read stand out. Even though they have different names, they behave like a large collective middle aged New York woman. Whoever wrote the screenplay for Sex and the City has done a marvellous job in creating the charecters, since the book is nothing like the show. It helps that the TV version has a visual aspect which helps with the whole separation process...

On a personal note about understanding and being understood - I spoke to my friend recently, the one I speak to twice a year. It was a long conversation which resumed over and over during the day...It had been so long and there was so much to catch up on. I had been in a funk about my non-career among other things and she had been in funks of her own. At the end of it, even though there was no solution at hand, I felt relieved. I had been heard and understood. And somehow I felt clean - like I was starting over. All my problems still remain, but the simple act of listening and understanding makes such a huge difference! I've known her for close to eight years now and I'd always assumed that we were similar and that was the binding factor in our friendship. Now I realize that we are not similar and that we in fact have different interests and objectives. What binds us in friendship is that we can understand each other and that we care.

It seems like a very simple thing - but its so rare to find in today's world. Maybe thats what drives people to shrinks! Most of my friends fall in one category or another. They understand, but don't have time to care or they care, but don't understand. And it sort of works the other way too...If I feel I don't have the mental connection with a person, I find it difficult to care about them or their happiness. Yes, of course I am cruel and heartless! Why, I took a test yesterday that said the very thing!