Type 7 Enneagram

I’m a seven on the enneargram. It is like the myers Briggs and is a personality test. Very useful tool to learn about yourself and about others. I highly recommend to check it out if you haven’t. I had a great visit to Minnesota for my cousin Carlene’s wedding. It was great seeing all the family. It went by too quickly. I wish I could have spent more time catching up with extended family.  It was a wonderfully spent weekend. I went out and celebrated Halloween which was fun. Indoor soccer just started. I’m in an over 30 league so I am the young buck on the team. I scored three goals in the first game however I sprained my ankle and still recovering from that. A few days before that I got a rock climbing membership at a climbing gym in a suburb. It felt great to get back climbing. I went climbing today. I have no stamina like I use to when I was climbing about a decade ago. I also have little strength compared to back then. It is going to take me a while to get the endurance and power back. So that is an exciting challenge for me.

This last week was a really hard week. Sometimes I feel I am the only person who is about helping the community and not about the self. People will always think differently and some peoples view of community is totally different from mine. Infact it is almost as if  its “let me do my own thing mentality and you do your thing.”  One would also think that striving for religious life would mean that everyone in the community would strive to make themselves better holy people. Wanting to go the extra yard to make a difference in the world. Instead is filled with rumors, gossip,  and filling up lives with unnecessary drama.  Today I feel God must be shaking his heads thinking what are these people doing? They don’t get it!

During the weekend I went to New Glarus Brewery. Probably the best Brewery tour I have ever been on. I think Spotted Cow is the best beer in Wisconsin followed by Moon man. You can only get there beers in Wisconsin. I was also able to go Mountain Biking one last time because it warmed up a bit. I’m sure the cold front will be coming back soon.

Here is a quick over view of a Type 7 on the enneagram which is my type.

Type Seven in Brief

Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical, they can also misapply their many talents, becoming over- extended, scattered, and undisciplined. They constantly seek new and exciting experiences, but can become distracted and exhausted by staying on the go. They typically have problems with impatience and impulsiveness. At their Best: they focus their talents on worthwhile goals, becoming appreciative, joyous, and satisfied.

         Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain

         Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs
fulfilled

         Enneagram Seven with a Six-Wing: "The Entertainer"

         Enneagram Seven with an Eight-Wing: "The Realist"

Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

 We had our first snow fall of the year. Luckily it has already melted

 This is in the town of New Glarus which is known as Little Switzerland. Stopped and had a aVenison brat and swiss cheese fondue.

Testing the beer to make sure it tastes right at New Glarus. I like the tour because you have the ability to interact with the employees. Infact I spent about 15 minutes wight the microbiologist who was testing the beer for different mold or bacteria in the beer. 

Triggered

Triggered. I really got triggered today in Just Faith. Just Faith is a a 30 week class where we meet once a week to talk about poverty and Social Justice  in the world. We meet at St. Mary's Parish in a Suburb of Milwaukee. We were talking about poverty. I talked about my experience in Tanzania about poverty there and yet they were happy and I talked about the frustrations I had with there type of thinking of only the present and not the future. They would eat everything they had now and starve in the future because that is how they have done it from generation to generation. Anyways there is this woman who left the conversation and talked on her phone for about 15 minutes and then when she came back I felt she attacked me. She said, “that is so American and cliché that we assume and think they are happy. We do that just to make ourselves feel better. They are struggling in life and they know life is hard.” She went on for about 10 minutes staring at me telling me how I am wrong infront of everyone because she had been to Haiti and seen extreme poverty there. Maybe it wasn’t a direct attack on me but it sure felt like it. I was ready to rip her head off and prove her wrong. Then I realized why and I getting so upset of this. Why am I triggered. Is it because she is right? Is it because she is attacking my view? Is it because she is like me a is a rich white person who lives in suburbia in a bubble who occasionally goes out and volunteers to make themselves feel better and feel they have contributed to society and then goes back to there bubble with a 50 inch flat screen TV. I refrained and let it go. I don’t need to prove her wrong or prove anybody. That is my ego that wanted to rip her a new one. My picture below is how I felt. I was King Leonidas for Halloween. He is a character from the movie 300.

Maybe the people in Tanzania weren’t happy and just putting a mask on.  Maybe they were happy to me because I was from America, or white or just someone who wants to listen to them and talk to them. I know for a fact though some of the happiest people I have ever seen in my life live in Tanzania. I am sure they are all not happy and some don’t know any different but I do know what I experienced.  I haven’t written in my blog for a bit but I needed to vent.