Since many of you are Intoverts and fail to understand the intricacies, I am going to explain to you what I term to be "The Principal Sin."
The philosophy goes something like this: to the mind of an extrovert, there are few things in the world more energizing than spending time with a group of people. There doesn't necessarily have to be something interesting going on, merely the act of spending time with people that I like is enough to energize and envigorate me. Granted, I will always take a choice to add more interesting people to the group and the option of doing something fascinating with that group... but failing that, I'm just a big fan of chatting with a group of my friends... who I already consider a very entertaining group of people.
By the same token, I tend to find time alone by myself to be very draining. It does tend to be very productive in terms of self-growth and all of that nonsense, but at the same time it is very stressful for me to be engaged in that sort of activity. I would much rather be with some friends... and after a time I become downright miserable if I am forced to spend long periods of time alone by myself.
Granted, there are rare exceptions when I really feel overwhelmed by people and need to get away, but those exceptions are so few and far between that I tend to simply wedge them in my spare time which, though limited, suffices almost all of the time to leave me with a sense of longing to be back with my friends again.
In light of all of this, the Principal Sin that I can commit against my friends is leaving them out. Granted, sometimes we will engage in an activity that some will not want to be involved in, but I pride myself in going to great efforts to attempt ensure that everyone can get in who wants in. By that same token, I expect similar efforts to be undertaken by my friends on my behalf. After all, if I'm willing to undergo the wrath of the entire group to wait for you to show up so you don't get left behind, I would appreciate at least a phone call to tell me when something interesting is happening. After all, I may have been sitting around with nothing to do, and the only reason I had a miserable evening is because you, my friend, didn't see fit to come get me.
Yes, I understand this post is kind of ranting and weaving around... I guess that's because this subject is one of those things that I just take for granted until I realize time and again that some of my friends don't share the same understanding of the topic.
Posted by Vengeful Cynic at October 20, 2004 02:40 PM | TrackBack