This month I went on a week long family cruise with five kids in tow. We were back less than a week when my husband and I headed for an event at his alma mater, staying with dear friends who live by the school.
When I got back from that, I had a stack of deadlines that would have daunted anyone. Although the temptation was Xanax with a vodka chaser, I buckled down and began to type until I was caught up. Almost caught up, sort of.
I was reminded of one fact over and over again. I am more like Lady Godiva than Greta Garbo. I might have been finished if I had just focused and written, but I felt the need to stop too often and update my status, get encouragement from my online friends, and bounce ideas off of them.
Lady Godiva had a problem to solve and she figured out how to do it and win the entire town’s love at the same time. Greta Garbo had problems and she holed up in a luxury suite and lived the rest of her life alone so that she didn’t have to deal with people.
I have no clue why I was thinking about this the other day – just that some people do better when they can deal with and solve problems in relative isolation and others need an entire cheer squad and audience to really overcome. I don’t know that one is worse than the other, as long as it works.
Although I am a pretty solid introvert, I have to talk about issues to resolve them. Once they are out, I kick around ideas, listen to other people’s solutions and finally figure things out. I don’t mind baring it all if it means that an issue will be put to rest.
Other people need to chew on things. They may need complete isolation to examine their own thoughts, Like Garbo they retreat from society – at least until they have decided on a course of action.
Those of us who are Godivas need to let Garbo have solitude. And Garbos out there? You need to understand that when Godiva works through a problem, everyone knows about it. That’s just the way it works.
So are you a Garbo or a Godiva?
photo credit: Lee J. Haywood
