actually, let's start from the very beginning

Wow, posting four times a week (as is required for my Technology of Information class at Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies) is a lot more challenging than I originally anticipated. Clearly, I have not been keeping up, but I'm going to try and force posts out of myself from here on out. We'll see how that goes.

So, back to the Enneagram. I figured I ought to take a few steps back and talk a bit about what I find so appealing about this personality profiling system. I'll make a list, since that'll help me organize my thoughts. This post will tackle Reason Number One (the order is of no consequence, though), and I'll continue the list in the next post.


1) I like reasons for things. I like systems and order. I like when things fall into place and "make sense" (to me). Every time I experience an emotion, my next thought is "where is this coming from? Why am I feeling this way?" The quicker I can find the root/explanation, the better. The longer it takes me -- or, G-d forbid, if I can't find any sort of explanation -- the more disquieted I feel. Despite being opposed to stringent, fixed identity categories, in theory, at some base level I find a lot of comfort in clear and understandable boxes into which I can put things (be they people, politics, feelings, or what have you).

This is why I'm drawn to religion, despite being completely agnostic. This is also why I enjoy reading my horoscope in the Village Voice and finding some truth and meaning in it, despite not actually believing, at the end of the day, that the way in which the planets were aligned on my date of birth actually determines anything about me. And this is definitely why I'm intrigued by and excited about the Enneagram -- it's an intricate, well-thought-out system through which I can make sense of myself, my feelings, my actions, as well as those of the people around me. It's not about the essential nature of a birth date, and it doesn't require me to believe in some higher power that's pulling the strings (though spirituality is a component of the Enneagram, for some). It envisions personality type as something formed by a combination of essential and constructed factors, which I find appealing at this point in my life, and, most importantly (to me), an individual gets to decide which type she/ze/he is based on her/hir/his own interpretation of her-/hir-/himself -- all people born in August are not Eights, all oldest siblings are not Ones, and so forth.


Next up, Reason Number Two for why I'm drawn to the Enneagram. In the meantime, I task anyone who is interested to venture a guess at my Enneagram type based on this post. :) It shouldn't be too difficult...