Hairy, Did you get a chance to read the paper this morning? No? Good. I have something interesting for you from the The Daily Pot.
So I went to a church rummage sale a couple of weekends ago. I was browsing through the boxes of books in order to find something to read while incarcerated at Saint Slice-you-up. I found a lonely box with only one book left inside. I picked up the book and it was "Understanding the Enneagram". !! I was so surprised I said, H! This is the personality test I've been trying to get you to take. The book was 75 cents (within my budget, IOW, lol) and so I bought it. I read it over the next couple days and found it very interesting. I especially like the part in the book where it talks about each type and has a heading called "How to get along with me". That will be useful to me.
Two things jumped out at me, after reading the book:
1. I get it. In the way that your counselor was talking about, I get it! I was attempting to explain the concept to H, but not wanting to give away too much in the hopes that he will read it himself, so I picked a number and began explaining it. It was the number I had picked out for his mom, so he eventually said, That sounds like my mom! We both agreed it was EERY how closely the descriptions of 2's matched her behavior. Then he said, Tell me about your number. Instantly I said, Oh noooooooo. No, I really don't want to H! He asked why not and I said, Cause all the characteristics sound so fruit and negative to me. I did tell him and he said, They sound like you, they don't sound negative. Anyway, I totally understand what you were talking about that day. When I look at the list of characteristics, as outlined by the authors, I was inwardly cringing and thinking, Oh what a doofus.
2. I read the chapter about 6's pretty intently, as I am nearly positive that's what he is. The thing that leaped out at me was the role that Fear played in their daily routine. I read this and thought, well that doesn't really apply to him but everything else is pretty accurate. A week or so later we were talking about our childhood. H was telling stories and I, as usual, had tears running down my face and couldn't even talk I was laughing so hard. But I noticed a pattern. In almost EVERY story (there were at least 10) he prefaced it with, This was my greatest fear...The thing I feared most was...I lived in fear of this happening. ETC It was really striking and was the first time that I had ever noticed this about him!
I was wondering if this was something you experienced also?
Anyway, wasn't that a divinely inspired find at the rummage sale...all the other boxes were full to the brim with (mostly romance) books. And here sat this empty box with the book turned upside down.
Anyway, I thought you would want to know what you started, LOL.
