People People

Awhile ago my mentor shared a particular quote with me. I have no idea whose quote it is. The quote was something along the lines of: "feeble minds think about people, average minds think about things, great minds think about ideas." Today I am going to explain why I think this quote is false.

I would agree that great minds think about ideas. I disagree that feeble minds think about people. The reason is because I think that being people oriented and being genuinely interested in other people is one of the best things you can be.

I think that the person who said this was thinking that these feeble-minded people think about other people in a negative way. They are people who are obsessed with gossip. They talk about people behind their backs in a nasty way. I agree that these people are no good.

But being concerned with other people isn't in itself bad. It's a hell of a lot better than being overly preoccupied with yourself. I think there are too many people who are overly preoccupied with themselves. Myself included, perhaps.

The thing about me is though, I have the tendency to develop odd fascinations with other people. Not necessarily crushes, though not necessarily not crushes either. I become interested in a particular person, usually because there is something about them that I find quirky. And I love quirkiness. So I am drawn to quirky people. I notice the things that these people do and I may talk about them with other people. I might laugh at and make fun of these people. Yet, even though I make fun of them, I still like them. Because you have a tendency to pick on people you like. Not necessarily like in a romantic way, just like as a person.

And the way it works is, even if I got in a fight with a particular person, and was perhaps kind of mean to them, in the end, after some time has passed, I end up liking them. For the soul reason that through arguing, we bonded.

I remember being at the Innercept office once, and entering a room full of Innerceptians. "Look, it's all my favorite people!" I said. The thing was that I meant it. Not necessarily my favorite people in the entire world, but it was all people whom I liked. Because I like people, and we were all at Innercept so we had that in common. It was something that bonded us together. And I have respect for people who are in this program, whether or not I like them, because I know they are not at Innercept because they are weak. It is because they have had to deal with some crappy bullshit in life that the majority of people don't have to deal with. Even the people I don't necessarily like in the program, and there are very few of these people, I respect for this reason.

There are two reasons why I am not excessively social most of the time. One of them is because even though I like people, I also fear people. The other is because sometimes I have a hard time pulling myself out of my own head and making conversation with other people.