Living at home affords a few advantages one would not immediately think of. My parents have gone without me to the Mensa Halloween party while I was at Purdue. This was the first time I've attended since 2011.
There's a man, whose name I believe is David, who always attends. I don't know his story or what his connection is to Mensa, but he is developmentally or socially challenged. It's difficult to understand and talk with him, but he's quite friendly in his rough way. In the past, my conversations with him have been awkward and unproductive. Consequently, I try to avoid them, and have always felt bad about that, especially because he's very good at remembering names. Tonight, when he notice me, he waved and shouted to me, and I immediately waved and said hi back.
I suppose I should feel a stronger connection to him, because my social skills aren't very good, either. Usually, my reaction is delayed and often inappropriate. Many situations overwhelm me until a flow is established, and that's just what happened when our host first greeted us. It wasn't until afterwards that I realized how automatically and correctly I responded to David.
It's progress. And progress feels good.
31 October 2014
10 October 2014
Dreaming and Doing
This webcomic has been going around tumblr (and probably other places I don't frequent), and I think it has a pretty good message. One of my friends quite vocally disagreed, so I want to talk about dreaming and doing a bit more extensively.
First of all, we have to define out terms. Dreaming and doing are two different things, and dreamers and doers are two more different things. In this context, at least, dreaming is the act of thinking about what you would like to accomplish, and doing is act of making it happen. A dreamer is someone who spends more time or effort dreaming than doing; a doer, the reverse.
There's nothing wrong with dreaming. No, more than that. You should dream. Before you can lay down any concrete goals, you need abstract notions of what you want to do. In fact, I'd venture that a great deal of our Gen Y angst could be avoided if we were given the option to really look before we leap.
But dreaming is not an end in itself. It's not even a means to an end. If you want to achieve your dreams, you're going to have to invest a lot of doing in them.
(Well, let me qualify that. If you're happy to imagine what you could be doing, instead of actually doing it, then dreaming is an end in itself. I wonder how many people will admit to that being satisfactory?)
Dreaming has a role to play in achieving those dreams. You need a reminder of what you're working towards, and you need to figure out just what that is. But you also need to sit down and work.
First of all, we have to define out terms. Dreaming and doing are two different things, and dreamers and doers are two more different things. In this context, at least, dreaming is the act of thinking about what you would like to accomplish, and doing is act of making it happen. A dreamer is someone who spends more time or effort dreaming than doing; a doer, the reverse.
There's nothing wrong with dreaming. No, more than that. You should dream. Before you can lay down any concrete goals, you need abstract notions of what you want to do. In fact, I'd venture that a great deal of our Gen Y angst could be avoided if we were given the option to really look before we leap.
But dreaming is not an end in itself. It's not even a means to an end. If you want to achieve your dreams, you're going to have to invest a lot of doing in them.
(Well, let me qualify that. If you're happy to imagine what you could be doing, instead of actually doing it, then dreaming is an end in itself. I wonder how many people will admit to that being satisfactory?)
Dreaming has a role to play in achieving those dreams. You need a reminder of what you're working towards, and you need to figure out just what that is. But you also need to sit down and work.
04 October 2014
01 October 2014
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