Life of Pride
Saturday, March 10, 2007
It is the last day of spring break, and I have come to realize something about my family. It is made up of geeks. And, really, this is OK. Geeks are splendid creatures.
So this post is about Geekdom, which is a strange and comfortable universe, very different from my PHC world. In Geekdom, the inhabitants are clothed at best in jeans and a t-shirt that reads, "There are two types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't." At worst, they cannot understand why they might want to change out of torn exercise pants and a wrinkled shirt of dubious character before they go watch a movie in the theater.
But a Geek absolutely loves to watch movies in the theater. The purpose is not the "experience," but the movie itself, which he will dissect with passionate sincerity. He watches in the theater instead of waiting to see a movie more cheaply, because he cannot wait. The people in the theater are also suffused with the same rosy glow in the Geek's mind, so long as they also love movies with passionate intensity. If they whisper and giggle, the Geek can do nothing else but despise them with utter loathing.
A Geek loves math in general, because it is clean and precise, the way the world should be. He has a keen sense of oughtness, since his mind operates at least halfway in the abstract world of perfection. For this reason, a Geek has a keen sense of right and wrong. Depending on how he feels about the other half of reality, this sense can reveal itself in two extremes - obsession with rectitude or a laid-back withdrawal from conflict.
Geeks can be a lot of fun because of their utter sincerity. An extroverted Geek can befriend anyone who does not care about external appearances, because he certainly doesn't. An introverted Geek likes other sincere people to come to him, but otherwise he is more honest than other sorts of introverted people - he cares much more about his work than about pushing through social niceties.
I myself am a hybrid of two worlds, a chameleon. I slip into geekhood easily; it is my heritage, and I am faster than almost everyone I know at math and science. But I do not choose that life to be my all. I temper my black and white with the shades of philosophy and theology that fill in the grayscale. I treasure my abstract half, while I choose to get dirty by bumping into folks in the concrete world. Abstract and concrete. Faith and reason. Spiritual and physical. It takes a hybrid, I do believe, to make a true philosopher.
So this post is about Geekdom, which is a strange and comfortable universe, very different from my PHC world. In Geekdom, the inhabitants are clothed at best in jeans and a t-shirt that reads, "There are two types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't." At worst, they cannot understand why they might want to change out of torn exercise pants and a wrinkled shirt of dubious character before they go watch a movie in the theater.
But a Geek absolutely loves to watch movies in the theater. The purpose is not the "experience," but the movie itself, which he will dissect with passionate sincerity. He watches in the theater instead of waiting to see a movie more cheaply, because he cannot wait. The people in the theater are also suffused with the same rosy glow in the Geek's mind, so long as they also love movies with passionate intensity. If they whisper and giggle, the Geek can do nothing else but despise them with utter loathing.
A Geek loves math in general, because it is clean and precise, the way the world should be. He has a keen sense of oughtness, since his mind operates at least halfway in the abstract world of perfection. For this reason, a Geek has a keen sense of right and wrong. Depending on how he feels about the other half of reality, this sense can reveal itself in two extremes - obsession with rectitude or a laid-back withdrawal from conflict.
Geeks can be a lot of fun because of their utter sincerity. An extroverted Geek can befriend anyone who does not care about external appearances, because he certainly doesn't. An introverted Geek likes other sincere people to come to him, but otherwise he is more honest than other sorts of introverted people - he cares much more about his work than about pushing through social niceties.
I myself am a hybrid of two worlds, a chameleon. I slip into geekhood easily; it is my heritage, and I am faster than almost everyone I know at math and science. But I do not choose that life to be my all. I temper my black and white with the shades of philosophy and theology that fill in the grayscale. I treasure my abstract half, while I choose to get dirty by bumping into folks in the concrete world. Abstract and concrete. Faith and reason. Spiritual and physical. It takes a hybrid, I do believe, to make a true philosopher.
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