My family was in the parish for decades. I went to the same school my aunts and sisters attended. That allowed me unlimited access to the rectory. I visited the priests often. We'd eat and talk about faith and other subjects. They were ordinary men who loved God. Perhaps that's why I was never enamored.
Gretchen Rubin has an interesting
test on personality tendencies. She breaks them down into four categories: Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, and Rebel. They're based on our response to expectations.
Outer expectations (a deadline, a “request” from a sweetheart), and
Inner expectations (write a novel in your free time, keep a New Year’s resolution).
- Upholders respond readily to outer and inner expectations
- Questioners question all expectations; they’ll meet an expectation if they think it makes sense, so they make everything an inner expectation
- Obligers meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet expectations they impose on themselves
- Rebels resist all expectations, outer and inner alike
I'm a Questioner and selective Upholder with my companion and certain situations where tradition is ideal. I'm not that way with friends.
