Of Others

I thought this was classic. If I knew a Christian Goth woman, I'd probably buy her one for my own amusement.

Also, one of my friends wrote a very good blog entry about respect, credentials, and love. I'm not sure how public she wants her blog, so I won't link to it. (Although the more technically inclined should be able to find it anyway. +1 respect points if you can.) I've stuck in assorted thoughts of my own.

I think it's interesting to hear people describe themselves - what pieces of info they choose to share at first and what impression they want to make. It shocks me how many adults want to impress me (yeah, I have my people I instantly want to impress as well). These conversations are much different in working relationships than friendships and friendships than dating, etc.

Wow, I'm glad nobody wants to impress me. (Mike: Now the question is - which part is the joke? That nobody wants to impress me, or that I'm glad about being so insignificant?)

One of the weirdest places to do this is church. I've recently been asked a number of times about what I'm involved in ... A few of the queries I've fielded have been motivated by comfort level ... I have no problem telling this set that [various involvement details edited out]...

This full answer only applies to that set of people (apparently my blog-reading public as well, but I'm guessing most of you know me well enough to unpack that anyway).

Ah, the on going question: How honest am I with strangers? I was reading job interviewing tips today. Most them boil down to "Don't be too open, manipulate any negative to seem like a positive. Honesty is not a good policy."

There's another set that's getting ready to judge my spirituality and our possible friendship or no based on my answer. It's sort of in the way the question is asked - lead up to after other prestige questions or before much has been said. There's this feeling that I get that if I've got the right pedigree, we'll try a friendship. If not, why bother?

This attitude fully annoys me and makes me sad...

On the other hand, it is a fair question - the things a person believes, thinks and feels make up who they are. These are often indicated by how they use or waste their time and occasionally by their level of involvement in something.

So here we go - how does one answer that question in both a humble, non-self-serving manner and honestly without negative pride?

Not much else to say. I loved the entry.