The Thing About Personalities

"If it weren't for caffeine I'd have no personality whatsoever!" ~ Anonymous

Brands have personality. Rooms have personality. Dogs have personality. And so do we (assuming you're a human being). No matter who we are, how rich or poor, quiet or loud, introverted or extroverted, funny or serious, or fat or thin: we all have one. Those who associate with us will attest to whether we have an agreeable personality or one that makes them wonder why euthanasia is outlawed. According to Briggs Myers, there are 16 general types of personalities, but the truth is everyone's personality is unique. No matter how much we may act alike, our personality is ours alone. This is a good thing because, after all, if we had the same personality as someone else then we wouldn't be us. We'd just be another them and that wouldn't do. The distinctive characteristics of our personality give us the individuality most seek and can determine how enjoyable our lives pan out to be.

Experts say there are 5 major personality traits including extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and (my personal fav) neuroticism, but some say that list stops short and should include goofiness, assholeness, dumbness, believability and the capacity to dominate entire conversations (blogs not included).

The word personality is said to be derived from the ancient Greek word, persona; used to describe the masks worn in the theater in those days to portray different characters and has evolved to mean the mask we choose to show the world. The behaviors we display elicits behaviors in others we interact with. If you exhibit bad behavior the problem is that one thing can lead to another and they can feed on each other which can cause a chain reaction and before you know it you have a whole bunch of behaviors blowing up and going all nuclear on you. So, most of us chose a set of behaviors that cause the fewest craters. Unless you're weird, of course. Then, all bets are off. We call this condition alternatively being all f*cked up, up tight, wacked out, or if you're a boring trained professional; the proud owner of a personality disorder. Slight adjustments are then called for or one can be sent into proverbial interpersonal banishment. Which is fine for those of us who just want a calm life unburdened with the messiness of social interaction. On the other hand those fortunate enough to have great personalities can cruise through a life rich with the rewards of good manners and likeability.

We can't buy a good personality. We can just try to fix problems with ours when and if they arise. Sometimes it takes people that care about us getting in our faces. And that's okay. Because when we're jerks sometimes we don't realize it because we're all wrapped up in ourselves. The process, while stressful and at times distasteful, must work because after thousands of years some of us are still talking and getting along...
 

People Who Do Bad Things To Themselves

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. ~ Robin Williams (RIP)

There are a lot of things that are bad for us. And part of the thing about growing up for most of us is learning how to avoid the "bad things" so you can lead a productive life and pay taxes and have children that can torture you the same way you tortured your parents.

There are some who think others spoil things for the rest of us by seeking out and performing actions that might end up hurting them... and they say their motivations come from something called "self destructive behavior."  They postulate these behaviors emanate from early childhood traumas (e.g. seeing your parents naked, discovering there is no Santa, pulling your uncle's finger when he tells you to, etc.) and manifest in early deviant behaviors such as sticking chewing gum under school desks, dressing in holey jeans, and turning in homework late. They will tell you these acts may seem innocuous at first but in truth they whet the appetite for more dangerous acts as people grow older. One day they're trying to do a wheelie on their bikes and the next they're mainlining heroin. A kid expresses an interest in beginning a coin collection and before you know it he's that man who buys gold jewelery from people and yells at people on television commercials. Embarrassing lessons on toilet flushing as a child can lead to problem gambling behavior as an adult. It would be sad if it was true. But it's not.

I know all this because I'm a trained professional in advertising. And we're trained to recognize behavior patterns. Risky behavior doesn't come from nowhere. Acts that are full of riskiness all emanate from fairy tales, Dr. Suez stories, comic books and heroic tales where the good guys win the day by putting their lives on the line for the betterment of mankind. Selfless acts.

The people who engage in risky behaviors in life are certainly courageous but they're not heroes. If they crash and burn it's because maybe they cared too much and maybe society let them down. And maybe it was meant to be. We can't judge. They were just trying to lead their lives to the fullest; and how they did so depended on how it was dealt out to them.

They deserve our admiration.

The Real 'Bad Boys'

Not trying to get all serious on you here but it seems our young are more absorbed than ever in the bad boy thing. Bad boys these days seem to be those who see themselves as partiers, risk takers, thrill seekers and evidently irresistible to the opposite sex. They're bullies, self-indulgent, self-entitled personalities and just plain folks trying to make their street reps. They are the hedonistic, tatooed pleasure seekers who think they can make themselves popular through actions that are risky, often violent, and surely inconsiderate of others. But those I speak of aren't really bad boys. They're posers. Problem is, they prey on the impressionable amongst us. Maybe we could launch a public service campaign that would speak to the issue.

In reality, the true bad boys in our collective conscience are the ones who think differently, have set examples of goodness and brought positive contributions to our cultures around the world.

They are the mavericks; the not-so-easy-to-get-along-withs. Folks well known for being relentless in their pursuits. They are the driven.

They are the ones who dared to ask the tough questions, push the limits of their professions, break the boundaries of understanding and find new paths for growth.

Their words speak of justice, advancement and positive change and their deeds pave roads to make things better for others. These are the true bad boys.

And they are those who shine a bit of light in a dim world and bring a bit of sensibility into our lives – in a world that often seems to be full of lost souls, shallow intentions and moral chaos.

These are the real bad boys. 

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Take these thoughts for what they're worth. Sometimes I just put stuff out there. Keeps the ol' brain cells percolating... These are mock ups so please disregard their obviously crude execution. Note: the logo uses a sourced free font called "Streetwear". Fun to play... :)

Bubbling Over

Words are weird. English words in particular. Some are frowned upon – outlawed by polite society – and some are liked so much people make songs up about them. One, about bubbles, was first published in 1919 and goes, "I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air" and is still well known almost 100 years later. You've probably heard it a million times, gargled it in the shower, had it run through your mind incessantly...

Bubbles have been around since ancient times. It is said the ancient Babylonians invented soap from goat fat and ashes and once that was done the inevitability of bubble making for fun and pleasure was only a matter of time. We don't hear Greek and Roman philosophers speak of bubbles at all because Greeks and Romans generally didn't use soap. They thought nothing of going through their entire lives not being squeaky clean; considering it only for those namby-pamby barbarians. Regardless, the tradition of parents getting pesky kids out of their hair for a while by giving them soapy water to play with had begun. There are a number of recipes online. 

The thing about bubbles is that inevitably they burst. Soap bubbles are neat to pop because doing so appeals to the maniac inside us all; bringing out the evil laugh in our arsenal of pleasurable vocal expressions. All this adds up to the fact that the bubble is a wonderful metaphor for a number of human conditions and circumstances; from the bursting of the dot-com bubble in the 90's to other economic situations (a commodity worth expanding in cost followed by a sudden contraction) to a description of our personal space. Urban Dictionary has a myriad of cultural slang uses of the word,  some weird. Okay, mostly weird. Due to their instability  it's understandable that soap bubbles were often used in paintings since at least the 17th-century Renaissance as a symbol for the transitory nature of life. Folks use the term to describe their own personal space. Mathematicians have used bubbles in many complex computations that I won't go into because I don't understand a single word that they've written. 

I'll just stick with blowing them; here in my own little bubble.