Disinterestingness

We have seven family mottoes at our house, most of which are variations on the idea that things are often not what you expect. Number five, for example:

Everybody is deep. But some people are deep and straight while others are deep and crooked.

Everyone has depths, parts of themselves that are hidden, maybe even to themselves, but sometimes the depths are relatively predictable: Most extroverts have a shadow introvert side. Most  neat freaks nurture a remote field of disorder somewhere. That's deep and straight.

Deep and crooked is no more deep, but is less predictable, more puzzling and therefore more immediately interesting: what does this have to do with that? How do an interest in medieval cookery, a four-year stint in semi-pro hockey and a paralyzing fear of mannequins combine to make a person?  Our desire to form stable, integrated pictures of people (including ourselves) and things (including brands) is a powerful motivation and provides the fuel for interestingness. Which means that a certain amount of apparent chaos, of disintegration, is necessary for something to be interesting.

So I enjoyed responding to Kevin's tag request for "five things that no one knows about you". It makes me more interesting to myself.

1. I'm terrified in the presence of things that are very big and very old. I thought I was going to black out at the temples in Prambanan. My sister has the same fear which she discovered in Greece. Could something that specific be genetic?

2. A number of unlikely songs make me weepy, including Life On Mars, I Dream Of Wires and Once In A Lifetime.

3. I've been interested in the Black Death since I was eleven.

4. I used to be a nanny.

5. I have a friend (well, more friend of friend) who's a zombie.

Comments

[Simon Neate-Stidson]

Hey Jeffre.
Actually, you have 2 friends of friends who are zombies. Well, kind of...
I don't know if you remember, but i told you once about Shaun of the Dead as it was due to come out.
[I actually do remember telling you this, as you then claimed you were gutted because you had had the same idea for this movie plot.]
Anyway, i told you that my best friend James plays a zombie in the movie.
What is it with you and zombies?
Simon

[Jeffre Jackson]

What is it with zombies and me? I wish I knew. They just seem to sniff me out.