It is International Talk Like a Pirate Day, me hearties, which means that it is also #2 son’s birthday. He plans to stay home from school and play all day. He is sixteen.
#2 son’s birth was memorable for the fact that the doctor didn’t show up. This was back in the days when people had beepers, not cell phones, and his was malfunctioning. I think I get a lot of points for the polite manner in which I said, “Is there any particular reason that we have to wait for the doctor?” as the nurses told me not to push because the doctor hadn’t arrived yet. There was a guy in scrubs hanging around, so we just went ahead and had the baby.
Sometimes, on kids’ birthdays, their mothers remember the day they were born. As the kids get older, the day they were born has less and less to do with them, but sometimes we still do remember it.
Last night I went back to my Tuesday class. There are several people I know in my small group, including a long-time customer of ours who homeschools her eight children and always responds to “How are you?” with “I’m blessed,” another long-time customer who I have always assumed is a lesbian though I would be hard-pressed to tell you why I think that, a couple of women with whom I have previously been in small groups, and two more customers of the store.
The leader of the group seems nice, but I had never met her before. It was therefore a surprise when, upon hearing my first remark in the group (something about the varying viewpoints in the gospels, I believe) she said, “You’re an artistic type.”
I gaped at her. Probably in wild surmise. I am being a greeter this year, so I had put on a dress. I was not attired in Picasso-like trousers and a beret. I was not wearing anything handcrafted. She had never even heard me sing, as far as I know.
So what the heck is “an artistic type”?
She assured me that she meant it in a good way, and we moved on.
Still, I wonder. I mean, it is possible that I am an artistic type. I’m a musician, which might count. I write for money, which may or may not disqualify that from being an art. I used to dance. I like to make things. I don’t think of myself as an artist, but I guess I might be an artistic type.
But what, in the five minutes between when I met this woman and when I said something in answer to question #2 about the Book of Matthew, gave her the idea that I was an artistic type?
Well, I googled around a bit, and I have discovered that “the Artistic type” is a recognized personality type. Artistic Types are compulsively creative, likely to be involved in the arts, put relationships after their work, are kind, independent, productive, and likely to be both extremely introverted and extremely extroverted. They are prone to mood swings, appreciate beauty, and have keen perceptions and a love of nature. They are witty, energetic, studious, cheerful, natural, generous, and graceful. Also nonconforming, impractical, impulsive, disorderly, complicated, and overly emotional. They like ambiguous, unstructured tasks and have little clerical or organizational skill.
I suppose I’ve been called worse.
I am working from home today, doing complicated, ambiguous, unstructured tasks requiring creativity and studiousness. Also baking birthday cake, teaching the hymns class, and practicing bells and choir.
Shiver me timbers!
Wishing #2 son the happiest of sixteenth birthdays! The sixteenth is a Momentous Occasion! Four cheers!
Some of that fits you, but you’re WAY too organized for all of it to fit!
Happy birthday to your son.
People are going to look at me funny if I attempt to talk like a pirate.
I’ll be making birthday cake too!
last year my son told us not to come visit him on his birthday, he was going out with his college buddies. I bought a cake and we ate it without him, he is still peeved about it to this day! maybe we shouldn’t have sent him pictures of what we were doing.
Gar! I be an artistic type!
Oh, yeah. Ottobre is kind of hit or miss, methinks.
Arrrrrrrrrrr, matey! Me parrot wishes son #2 a happy piratey birthday. Arrrrrr. When I think of “artistic” type, I think of creativity and openness. Thinking outside the box. Picture of birthday cake!?
Happy birthday #2 son. (I won’t talk like a pirate – we don’t have that over here) Psychologists always go on about how general astrological characterisation is so we shouldn’t believe in it, and yet they expect us to believe in the ‘personality types’ they come up with – which are usually just as general .
#2 son’s psych text sounds cool. Wish we could have done something like that when I was at school. Up until I started my degree all that I knew about psych I gleaned from fiction and non-fiction books I’d read over the previous years so my knowledge of psych was extremely narrow.
Actually, I’ll take back that comment about pirates. I just remembered that one of the loopy techs at work was dressed up as a pirate yesterday in the office – black patch, cutlass and all. And of course, yesterday was Sept 19 here!
Aye you’d be right. The mild climate (a bit colder down south here ‘tho) would encourage dressing for fashion rather than for warmth. I think they also had dogskin cloaks as well ‘tho. The grass skirts were quite substantial however and I’m not sure if both women and men wore them or just men. They did have woven cloth from flax and I think the women might have been more likley to wear that. It’s been a long time since I studied the pre-European history of NZ at school so my memory is a little barnacled (got nothing to do with increased age of course
)
They did weave so it is possible that the skirts were woven flax – after all, doesn’t linen come from flax?