Milwaukee

Maybe it's time to post something again. It has been almost a month since my last post. And, to be honest, I haven't had a post worth reading in nearly a year (some would argue much, much longer).

I'm not the kind of guy that likes to talk about what I've been doing. I'm more the kind of guy that likes to say quick-witted one-liners and then crawl back into my cave. Facebook is much better for one-liners, but it takes a lot of one-liners to actually say anything of value (some would argue that the sum total of all my facebook comments wouldn't add up to anything of value. I would be among them.)

I see that the trend right now--being the end of 2009 (or beginning of 2010, if you like to look at things like that)--is to give a recap of all the things that happened during the last year. While that would certainly be interesting, I'd like to do something a little different. I don't know what yet, though, so maybe I'll come back and edit this part after I see the direction this post goes.

Maybe I should talk about an experience that happened to me at church a couple weeks ago and go from there. Our Elder's Quorum is the best I've ever been in. Everybody gets along, is able to joke around with each other, but can be serious and spiritual when needed. Anyway, part of the cause of that is that we go around the room introducing ourselves whenever someone new comes into the ward (or from time to time just for fun). I was asked to share what my interests are and it took me a minute to come up with an answer.

It used to be that I felt defined by the things I did. Back when I played the guitar all the time I considered myself a guitar player. When I went out shooting guns every week I was a ... well, a gun enthusiast, I guess. When I was excitedly learning how to cook I was some sort of cooking person.

Those labels always bothered me, as do the labels we put on other people. How is it possible to define a person with 3 or 4 words? And are a person's hobbies really the defining factor in who they are?

Maybe. I'm not writing to give an answer, just to ask the question. I think back to all the people I've met (at least the few I remember) and look at how my perception of that person was ... not "tainted", but a similar word without the negative connotations. I'm not saying that it's bad to introduce someone to someone else by giving a short description of the person, but it's funny to me that those few words become forever associated with the person, at least in my own head.

And those associations can really make an impact on how people are perceived by others, for good or for bad.

I'm often introduced to people at work as "the computer guy" or a similar description. While that is indeed the one-faceted perception that most people have of me at work, it seems woefully insufficient to define who I am. There have been times that I've considered writing up a short essay explaining who I am and what defines me, and having a stack on my desk to hand out to people I meet, but I have a feeling that would seem a little odd (which might reinforce the topic of the essay).

Maybe a short video presentation would work, or some sort of audio recording.

I guess learning about who someone is will always take more than just a handshake and a few pleasantries. And maybe it's better that way. Maybe it's good that we don't all immediately know everything there is to know about other people. It lets us preserve our own personal identity and reveal it as we see fit to those with whom we interact. I definitely don't want strangers knowing as much about my personality as my wife does. And even my co-workers each have a different perception of who I am and what interests me.

Which brings us back to my earlier question: what are my interests?

My answer? Everything. I can't think of a single thing in the world that doesn't interest me in some way. I may not currently be pursuing many interests, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in things. There's no food that I don't want to try, no place that I don't want to go (except maybe Milwaukee), no sport that I don't want to participate in.

So how do you sum that all up in a single phrase during an introduction? "Hi. I'm Dan. I'm interested in everything...except maybe Milwaukee."