Today a friend categorized me as a “work-a-holic”.
I immediately countered, “No! I enjoy doing LIFE too!”
To which he said, “Okay, you are a busy-a-holic.”
I liked that a lot better 🙂
I’ve been mulling that conversation over in my mind, and a couple of things stand out. Or at least, have caused me to ponder.
First, I rarely get to meet this friend, most of our interaction is via text. So his perception of my attitude towards life must have been gained through our brief encounters. Or texting styles.
Do we give that much away in such little time? Do I give that much away? Do I act in a way that brings to mind an over-doer? Am I always in a state of frenzied action?
Generally, how much do we infer about other people? Are our inferences based on historical perspectives? Personal experiences?
What do we tell other people by how we sit, and talk, and interact? What are we picking up from other people based on those same criteria? Is it a conscious act? Or one that we do without even realizing it. Have we formed opinions without even knowing that our mind is doing all this work in the background?
What causes two people to want to spend time with each other, to get to know each other? Why do I gravitate towards X, and not Y? Even though Y may enjoy the same books as I do, and listen to the same music?
Is it the inferences we make? Or something more obvious? Or more subtle? Or some combination thereof?
Since I’ve started working outside the home, I’ve been meeting more people. (Keep the DUH! to yourself please 😀 ) Perhaps I had forgotten the art of interaction.
Are these realizations I am having common sense to everyone else?
So, I’ve been categorized as a busy-a-holic. Which is funny, because I think of myself as an extremely lazy person. So then, where do self-perceptions come from? Are they MORE or LESS accurate than external observations? Or again, is it some combination thereof?
I wanted this blog to be about the differences between a workaholic and busy-a-holic, but it had other ideas. Perhaps I’ll talk about that some other day.
For now, I’ll keep thinking about perceptions, inferences, and maybe mental manipulations.
For I’m sure they are all interconnected in some way, shape or form.
Disjoint Wisdom 
One response to “Perceptions”
What's an accurate perception of a person to begin with? We perceive each other and ourselves through a distortion of emotions, attitudes and moods… Add the fact of ever-lasting change in ourselves to the equation and I am not sure that an objective picture of a person exists at all.
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