Tales from the Steppes

2003-11-25

10:15 a.m.
Obnoxious

One of favorite pieces of grafitti was located on a wall in Blacksburg. It simply said "I was obnoxious tonight." Perhaps when I die, I will have that engraved on my tombstone. I suppose I would have to ammend it to "I was obnoxious last night." Certainly would be appropriate......

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Saturday's workday actually went pretty well, all things considered. I tried to teach the cub scouts about which plants were weeds and which were meant to be there. They were pretty enthusiastic. The only person that had a real problem was the scoutmaster's wife. She loudly opined that almost everything in the wildflower/butterfly garden was a weed. I tried to explain about natural gardens and the purpose behind the plantings, but she was having none of it. She told me to my face that I knew nothing about butterfly gardens and that this was a stupid project. Sigh. Fortunately, I am accustomed to people critiquing (not always gently) my work. Other fields have academic weed classes; ours has personality weed classes. People that take criticism personally or get emotionally wounded by being dissed in public will never be happy as either an architect or landscape architect.

In a way, this relates to my original thought about being obnoxious last night. Personality traits are often double-edged swords. It is my self-defined sense of worth coupled with a greater respect of thoughts over feelings that allows me to flourish as a professional. But another way of looking at it would be to say that I have a terrible tendency to be self-centered and oblivious to how other people feel unless I am focused.