HowTaoBrownCow

About me:

I'm not sure if an individual is ever sufficiently objective to describe themselves accurately, so this may be a futile exercise, in addition to being a narcissistic one. But futile and narcissistic probably describe me pretty well, so I'll give it a shot...
My primary focus in life is spirituality and enlightenment. But I've got a pretty irreverent sense of humor, and a deeply held conviction that everything is intrinsically funny, so I tend to come across a bit like one of those Zen stories, where you're never quite sure whether the monk is a total nutjob, just joking, or really enlightened. (I'm hoping for one of the latter two, but the first is probably more likely.)

BTW, one of my favorite Zen stories:

And elderly monk at the Zen monastery passed away, and all of the monks attended his funeral. During the service, two of the younger monks noticed that the Abbot was crying. After the service, the monks approached the Abbot and asked, "Master, we saw you crying during the service." 'Yes, of course,' the master answered. 'But you're the Abbot of the monastery and a master of Buddhism and meditation, fully aware of life and death and reincarnation, and beyond attachments. Why would you be upset?' 'Fools,' replied the master. 'When else do I get the chance to cry?'

A description that I liked was that I was half Zen monk and half Chandler Bing from Friends, but that reference is becoming increasingly dated. (As, I suppose, am I.) I think I'd factor in 10% new age nut, another 20% scifi/comic-book/computer geek, and maybe a last 10% TV junkie. (After all, before TV, two world wars; after TV, zero!) If you're literal, that adds up to 140% -- so don't be literal. Either that, or decide that we're not all One -- we're all at least 1.4. (Trust me, I'm a math major.)

Then we could go through flaws: a procrastinator on anything that's not interesting or necessary; generally unwilling to do group activities, that I don't enjoy, just in the spirit of things ("You guys go ahead, I'll just hang out and read."); not very accommodating of "pointless" social customs or conventions; sympathetic but not accommodating of the irrationality of others; willing to state my opinion on anything, which is sometimes seen as arrogance; not particularly well understood by folks who expect others to be conventional; unwilling to spend time with people I don't find interesting (I find that while I basically like everyone, I just don't have time for everyone, and I filter accordingly); and, while I'm told I'm a good conversationalist, I can't create it from nothing the way some people can -- I think I'm only as good as the person I'm talking to -- which makes me sometimes reluctant to talk to strangers for fear of awkwardness and "impedance mismatch".

I guess I could go with some simple statistics:

..Appearance..: 5'11", 140 lbs, brown hair, brown & green eyes, light skin, a bit stiff of bearing but a ready grin to compensate for it.

..Personality..: Meyer-Briggs type: INTJ, Rational Scientist (aka Mastermind), moderated by a lot of intuitive work, decent communication skills, and patience.

..Astrological Sign..: Sun & Moon in Virgo (yea, like you couldn't guess that from an itemized list of personality traits); I'm not actually a huge astrology fan, but I've noticed that the more detailed and precise a reading is, the more accurate it seems to get, and the standard interpretation of my detailed chart seems to be a pretty accurate descriptor of my personality. So far be it from me to exclude accurate data.

..Religion..: a seeker, from a family of seekers. Started episcopalian, jewish by 5, pagan by 8, atheist by 13, agnostic, buddhist, scientologist by 17, followed by joseph campbell, wicca, druidism, enochian magic, islam, chi-lel qi-gong, and perelandra by 38. Majored in physics, math, and computers, and work in computers, and I find that everything I learn helps me understand everything else better. There are so many windows on Truth that I don't get how anyone can lock into only one view and deny all the others. After all (Soapbox alert!), if the Universe/God/All is infinite, and the mind of man is finite, and if each mind is different from every other, then it follows that (a) each person can only understand an infinitesimal fraction of that Universe/God/All, and (b) the fraction that each person can grasp must be different from that of their fellows. So, claiming that your truth is all-encompassing and absolute seems more a product of insecurity than of a sincere desire to know god(s). But, hey, that's just me; I could be wrong. :-)

..Blood type..: B positive (appropriately enough)

Maybe a few favorite quotes would help?:

..Shakespeare..: "This above all, to thine own self be true; and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." (Hamlet I:3)

..Marx..: "I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member."

..Hubbard..: "No one ever got anything done by being serious."

..Seuss..: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

..Campbell..: "Follow your bliss."

..Colbert:..: "There's no status I would not surrender for a joke."

..Wilde..: "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

..The Tick..: "Spoon!"

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