9.30.2006

openness

You Are 53% Open

You are a fairly open person, but you also like to maintain your privacy.
You definitely will tell all (okay, almost all) to your closest friends...
But strangers and acquaintances only get a peek into your life.


I met with a new spiritual director today. It was rough going in the beginning, opening up. But she was nice, I needed to talk, and so it all came out. She asked some very good questions that have me pondering some unbloggables. I think she might be a good fit, and I've been missing having a regular spiritual director. We're going to meet for a few months and the reevaluate.

But it made me think ... how open am I? Apparently 53% according to this quiz. Some who read this blog may think I'm REALLY open ... or "sharey" as a blog friend commented in a recent e-mail. On the one hand that's true - I do share a lot of the interior stuff on this blog. But there's also a great deal I don't share here. That's why it was a good thing to take the 1st three weeks off from the blog ... it would have been more than I could handle to sort through what was shareable and what was not. Anonymous as the medium may seem, that's deceiving. Anyone could be reading this thing, and I've been surprised more than once that someone who I didn't think read it was reading it.

Back to the idea of sharing though - it's hard to share, to truly be open. But I think when we can really open up to another human being, we allow the sacred in us to meet the sacred in the other and good things can happen. It's not easy but it's powerful.

3 comments:

Lisa said...

I totally relate to the questions you consider here.

I am a very private person generally speaking, so it would come as a surprise that I would be sharing in the blogosphere. Yet, for me, I have come to understand that community and real relationships can be formed through this medium, but I am also aware that it is not a closed space so that people outside that circle of e-friends can also access what I write.

Remembering that, for me, is important since it's otherwise very easy for me as a writer to just write and write and write and not necessarily edit. The ease of blogging can create the false sense of private journalling. While not in and of itself a problem, life's experiences are complex and often our initial responses to them are very raw and reactive so I, for one, am glad I have the opportunity to edit/delete posts.

Oh well, just a few thoughts... btw, I am off to take the "How Open Are You?" quiz and betting I'll only score around a 40-45%.

Katie said...

I scored only 40% open on the quiz... And I was worried that I was getting diarrhea of the mouth in my old age.

Michelle said...

it would have been more than I could handle to sort through what was shareable and what was not.

Very interesting point that I think I've been struggling with but didn't quite know how to articulate. It takes a lot of energy to sort through all the stuff going on in one's head and filing them under blogable and unblogable -- and that's even before you get to the even harder part of putting the blogable into a neat, cohearant narrative!

I think I also struggle with a sort of persona I've developed unintentionally with my blog that only reflects a part of me and not sure how or even if I should bring the other parts of me to my blog. Granted, I have a lot more freedom than you do as I don't have anyone reading and making conscious or unconscious decisions about fitting into a community, lifestyle, etc. That sort of pressure must make it a bit more difficult.

But I think when we can really open up to another human being, we allow the sacred in us to meet the sacred in the other and good things can happen.

That's a really lovely way of putting it. I remember my priest saying once that since we are all made in the image of God, we all reflect some aspect of God. When we fail to be ourselves, we fail to be that image of God that he created us to be. (Or something like that -- my memory can really suck!) I've always tried to remember that and I think now I'll add your way of putting it as well. :)

Oh, and I actually got a 60% on the quiz, yet a number of the questions I found my answer would be different depending on which friends, thereby skewing my results. Cause, ya know, internet quizzes are SO scientific and all... ;)