Dilettante, Flaneur, Seigneur-terrace
Describe yourself in a handful of nouns. What do you come up with? Try to avoid words that are tribal (Democrat, Catholic) or that name what you do for money (banker, lawyer, sex-worker). These should be names that you feel as comfortable wearing as a name tag, words that name you just as well. The point is to choose words that get at your constitution as a human being. Try not to think about them in judgmental terms, but purely descriptive. This may take some hard thinking and honesty.
For example, some of my nouns can be fairly called derisive. They all carry a flavor of the unserious, a connotation of failure, and certainly a suggestion of being an object of ridicule. They all point to someone with nothing better to do, indulging in activities "just for ducks," as we used to say. I'll own up to that part. I'm a bit of an odd fool, in my way, a wanderer and even a bumbler -- not in the sense of causing havoc, but in the sense of following and enjoying serendipity. I don't have a plan -- be it 5-year or 5-minute -- and if a plan presents itself, I'd rather not stitch myself to it too thoroughly.
Let's hammer down on the words themselves, yes?
Dilettante: I've never cared for the idea of drilling deep into a body of knowledge. Life is a survey course, and far too short to be spent in a cloister -- even of one's own making. I'd always rather be conversant on many subjects than expert on one or a few. I'm re-learning guitar right now -- I haven't had a lesson in 25 years -- and I'd be delighted to be able to play one song very well. In fact, many of the jobs, hobbies, pastimes, and diversions I've tried have been, in essence, experiments just to see if I could do them. I once took a broken chair and made it into a table, for no reason other than to do so. I have no interest in building furniture, but I sure was interested to see what I could do. I taught myself to sail and took the pilot's test at the local sailing club, though I've been sailing no more than a handful of times since then. I taught myself to fix nearly anything that went wrong with my first several cars, and then promptly decided to buy Hondas in perpetuity, to avoid ever having to do much repairing. I've published poetry and seen my songs and plays performed. I've been on the radio and television, and in movies. I have a listing on IMDB. I'm an ordained minister and an atheist at the same time. I taught myself to cook (and pretty well), but now I drink Soylent for most meals. I can't stand writing on deadline, and the mere idea of relying on my pen for money frightens me to death, and still became a magazine columnist. I hated school and became a teacher. I became an English teacher, then spent as much time as I could teaching my students history. I wanted to try every drug known, but hated the idea of dependence and wouldn't try heroin. Too much of a chance of sliding into expertise, I think. I listen to Mozart until it makes me feel stuffy, then play Motorhead -- but I still have ABBA and Air Supply on my ipod. I've voted for each major political party exactly once. I wanted to be a CIA officer or FBI agent, but couldn't find the moral certainty to do either -- to uphold my country or the law. I've got this one down.
Flaneur:
For example, some of my nouns can be fairly called derisive. They all carry a flavor of the unserious, a connotation of failure, and certainly a suggestion of being an object of ridicule. They all point to someone with nothing better to do, indulging in activities "just for ducks," as we used to say. I'll own up to that part. I'm a bit of an odd fool, in my way, a wanderer and even a bumbler -- not in the sense of causing havoc, but in the sense of following and enjoying serendipity. I don't have a plan -- be it 5-year or 5-minute -- and if a plan presents itself, I'd rather not stitch myself to it too thoroughly.
Let's hammer down on the words themselves, yes?
Dilettante: I've never cared for the idea of drilling deep into a body of knowledge. Life is a survey course, and far too short to be spent in a cloister -- even of one's own making. I'd always rather be conversant on many subjects than expert on one or a few. I'm re-learning guitar right now -- I haven't had a lesson in 25 years -- and I'd be delighted to be able to play one song very well. In fact, many of the jobs, hobbies, pastimes, and diversions I've tried have been, in essence, experiments just to see if I could do them. I once took a broken chair and made it into a table, for no reason other than to do so. I have no interest in building furniture, but I sure was interested to see what I could do. I taught myself to sail and took the pilot's test at the local sailing club, though I've been sailing no more than a handful of times since then. I taught myself to fix nearly anything that went wrong with my first several cars, and then promptly decided to buy Hondas in perpetuity, to avoid ever having to do much repairing. I've published poetry and seen my songs and plays performed. I've been on the radio and television, and in movies. I have a listing on IMDB. I'm an ordained minister and an atheist at the same time. I taught myself to cook (and pretty well), but now I drink Soylent for most meals. I can't stand writing on deadline, and the mere idea of relying on my pen for money frightens me to death, and still became a magazine columnist. I hated school and became a teacher. I became an English teacher, then spent as much time as I could teaching my students history. I wanted to try every drug known, but hated the idea of dependence and wouldn't try heroin. Too much of a chance of sliding into expertise, I think. I listen to Mozart until it makes me feel stuffy, then play Motorhead -- but I still have ABBA and Air Supply on my ipod. I've voted for each major political party exactly once. I wanted to be a CIA officer or FBI agent, but couldn't find the moral certainty to do either -- to uphold my country or the law. I've got this one down.
Flaneur:
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