Monday 31 December 2012

Adventures in self knowledge

1) Overhearing someone on the bus expressing my exact views on Edinburgh's Hogmanay and thinking what a miserable bastard they sounded.

2) Discovering that the face I pull when I am lost in a reverie of existential misery and self loathing and also rather cold looks exactly like a cheery grin unless you are really close up and this is why people smile at me in the street while I am thinking about ripping their heads off.

3) Being unable to answer the question 'if you met someone exactly like you, would you like them?' About 80% of people have no difficulty in immediately saying yes.

7 comments:

  1. I'm with you on no. 3. I'm not sure I'd like someone like me. In fact, I think I wouldn't, but don't really have the confidence to say for sure, since I don't know what the hell I'm like. I suspect my self-image and the reality don't quite match.

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  2. I can only hope that I am nicer to be with than my self image suggests but the state of my social life and in particular my love life strongly implies otherwise.

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  3. I used not to be very likeable. Now, most people do like me and that makes me very happy. I think it's because I realised that I needed to show that I liked them. I have no idea if I'd like my alter ego, though I'd love to find out.

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  4. I don't think I'm particularly likeable. My saving grace used to be that while I was fairly gloomy and pessimistic, I had a sense of humour and was funny about it. The past few years have knocked that right out of me and now I'm overwhelmingly negative, verging on bitter, with no redeeming features. I've also spent so much of the past 4 or 5 years alone (in a not spending time socially with anyone rather than a relationship sense) that I've rather lost any social skills. Also when I show people I like them I get rejected so I've kind of given up on that.

    The thing I still can't get a grasp on though is that I am apparently not and never have been lovable even as a child. I am aware however that my tendancy to glare at couples and think 'how come someone loves you and not me?' is one of my least likeable features.

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  5. Except by cats, obviously. Cats love me.

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  6. Of course you are loveable, you mad woman. True, you're not in a relationship but that's not the same thing. I'd just like to point out that 34% of people in the UK live alone, and I'm sure the figure for single people is much higher... To me, it's just the luck of the draw. Here's some nice statistics, for some perspective....

    http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/family-demography/families-and-households/2011/stb-families-households.html#tab-Living-alone

    I think it's fair enough to feel bitter, it's like being prejudiced, no one could claim not to be prejudiced in any way, but it's how you let it affect the way you act towards other people that counts.

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