I've really done it

I can't believe it but I'm blogging. I wonder how many people say that? My reasons: I'm not entirely sure. I've never been good at journalling so why would I even try? Perhaps I'm lonely or egotistical. I'm not really even sure if I'm going to show this to anyone. It could very well end up an endless cyber-ramble that only I am privy to and has just some cathartic function. I don't know. It's just an urge and I'm going to go with it. So....

The name "ISTJ- Choleric/Melancholic" is based on two well-known personality tests I took last night. I find that I am so delighted to "know" my personality. It's hilarious really because I know very well that essentially these tests just put a person in a box, a box which apparently they are very eager to both locate and inhabit. It's this constant desire for self-definition that drives us after all. And the glorious thing about it is that you can define yourself in a matter of five minutes or so, like it's that easy. Something in the ego just loves hearing an outside opinion on itself that bolsters it's sense of identity. Reality check though: people don't fit into 4 categories. Not even 16 or 24. This fascination with categorizing really took off with the Enlightenment and reached some rather absurd levels in the 19th century. All of this categorizing gives us a sense of control over natural phenomenon. If you can name it and place it, you know it. If you know it, you own it. Foucault talks about these categories and their socially constructed nature. To make a point, he mentions one "Chinese encyclopedia" in which animals are broken into the following categories:
a) belonging to the Emperor
b) embalmed
c) tame
d) sucking pigs
e) sirens
f) fabulous
g) stray dogs
h) included in the present classification
i) frenzied
j) innumerable
k) drawn with a very fine camel- hair brush
l) et cetera
m) having just broken the water pitcher
n) that from a long way off look like flies

His point here is that, while this system of classification may seem arbitrarily defined and outright absurd to us, who is to say our own system is superior? All of these seemingly "scientific" categories we employ  every day are created by men in an attempt to understand and therefore control their world. Human nature.  So it goes with these personality types. We are so uncomfortable with the grey areas, with the unknown in life that we would rather forsake our total uniqueness and don a "type" that puts all questions to rest. I am Choleric so I like to argue and I think logically. Perhaps this is mostly true of me- but does that mean that I cannot escape such a temperament? Is this personality somehow essential to my nature? I think not. Or, I at least hope not. But here is me being optimistic- and that's not a Choleric trait!