Insecurity

"Is it possible to live surrendering to the reality of insecurity, embracing it, allowing it to open us and transform us and be our teacher?" ~ Eve Ensler, Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security Obsessed World

This quote/question points out the fallacy of security, despite all our efforts in building a career, a marriage, a life that is "secure." Companies are bought out or downsized; jobs are lost; heads roll, even at the top; wives cheat; husbands die of sudden heart attacks; our children get leukemia or become drug addicts; adolescent girls get pregnant; our country is attacked; the economy spirals downward. The frequently crippling need to create security is born of the very basic fact, which we are taught to deny, that there is, in truth, no such way of being. The acceptance of this truth and the fact that we don't know and can't control what happens next can transform our lives and not just because we are facing our fears and demons, but because we are living in the Now with awareness rather than raging against it with all of our might. We can let go of our security blanket and venture away from mommy, not knowing if we're going to fall down but accepting that falling would be every bit as meaningful, and every bit as necessary, as sitting comfortably in her lap. It could be argued that surrendering to the reality of insecurity can make one feel, paradoxically, less insecure.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

The thin-slice: fascinating book, 4.5 Stars on 5-Star scale. You won't be disappointed.

But, if I also had to provide an explanation of my rating, it would fall to 2.5 Stars.

Read the book to find out why (the reason is astonishing).

Oh, and make yourself smile when you're feeling low; you'll begin to feel better. Honest. Yes, that's in the book, too.

Sunday Morning Blogging

I love Sunday mornings, especially alone. I can do, or not do, whatever I want - walk around in my underwear, toss the newspaper on the floor, eat last night's leftover Chinese food for breakfast. But today, I'm having an onion bagel smeared (or maybe enshrouded) with garden vegetable cream cheese and I'm poking around on the net ... in my underwear. I just took a really quick enneagram test that I found on an acquaintance's blog and I find the results to be interesting. I am mostly a type 5 , Investigator, followed closely by a type 2, Helper. For just a sample test, this seems to be fairly accurate, or at least I want to think so.


free enneagram test

I'm also reading a new book: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. It's the investigator in me. (I bought it yesterday afternoon after the ice cream binge with my son. I also bought another book, Flow:The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and a CD, Desire by Pharoahe Monch (I have eclectic tastes in music)). So far this is a fascinating book and very well written, not at all pedantic. I'm sure that once I've finished it I'll be able to recommend it to anyone interested in learning to make better decisions, including judgments about people.

OK, back to my bagel and book.