One of my favorite places to go is the book store. I could literally browse around in there for hours. To this day, my favorite first date was at a Barnes & Noble. Granted, it didn’t keep me around, but I’ll always remember that weirdo young man. Anywho, about a week or so ago I picked up a book titled Archetype: Who Are You?
The premise of the book is that everyone can be categorized in one primary bucket of characteristics or personality traits. The author identifies ten categories in all: the Caregiver, the Artist/Creative, the Fashionista, the Intellectual, the Rebel, the Queen/Executive, the Advocate, the Visionary, the Athlete, and the Spiritual Seeker.
The theory is that once you know your archetypes, you can then use this knowledge to make more conscious decisions about everything from careers to relationships, avoiding pitfalls of your personality type, playing up your strengths.
At first glance I pegged myself as Creative or even Visionary – something cool, right? Once I took the test, I did see that I in fact do have some traits in those categories, but my primary archetype was Intellectual. Really???? (Isn’t it always interesting to compare your perception of yourself to what you really are.)
I think of myself is fairly trendy, in the know, not quite straight-laced. So I of course retook the test (after I semi-pouted). Needless to say, same results.
After I dismissed the book and took a TV break, I eventually conducted a real inventory of myself. While I do enjoy a random portfolio of trendy items – clothes, food, diets, gadgets – I’m the same person who wrote down the time when the Dick Cheney documentary came on Showtime. I also get pissed when people interrupt my viewing of Bill Maher. And oh yeah, I program my phone to receive a word of the day from dictionary.com so I can expand my vocabulary. Hoo-hum (head hangs down). I guess I am a geek… or more politely put, I am most definitely an Intellectual. Fine, case closed. If you’d like to find your archetype, feel free to take the same test I took HERE.
So, with that in mind, here’s something you may find interesting too. I am completely fascinated by the challenges the US faces – economic, educational, tragedies, etc. (I know you’re thinking how could this chick possibly think that the Intellectual category wasn’t an option. However friend, you have digressed.) Yesterday, Rachel Maddow endorsed the book 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaption as one of the best books on 9/11. It’s not a new book, but what it does is takes the final 9/11 National Commission report and puts it in a comic book format. I know it’s werid, but I think it works. It’s geared toward those who don’t have the patience or time to read large volumes of text. The graphics make it more informative, more available, and more likely to be read in its entirety. Here’s an Amazon link if you’re interested.
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