Idiosyncrasies....Time For Replacments?

Usually I think of idiosyncrasies as the building blocks of great personalities (usually), but I am starting to notice that some of mine may be a bit unhealthy. Of course everyone has their “thing” or multiple peculiarities, but there is a point to where it becomes a bit much.

Case in point: when someone begins to joke around about themselves in the third person – like John saying to Jim, “Well, how is Jim doing today?” and Jim responding, “Jim is doing awfully well, thank you very much.” Once can make a few people giggle at the absurdity of the joke, but when Jim starts to talk about himself in third person at least once a day, it becomes really lame.

The last example could just be performed by someone with a really bad sense of humor. So let’s say Donald is some 25 year old guy and a huge germophob. At first it just seemed sanitary, and all the girls thought he was different from all the other guys. He kept his room clean, and always washed his hands before cooking. One day, however, after he spent too many years being too meticulous, he refuses to take out the trash because he doesn’t want to touch it. That is going a bit too far.

That is an extreme case, but hey that’s what this generation is all about. All or nothing. One extreme or another.

Anyway, back to my unhealthy idiosyncrasies. Over the years I have groomed a few “things’ into full blown idiosyncrasies and I’m starting to wonder if I can break out of the mold. So let me just list a few…a few that I know myself and others contributed by Alex.

To begin, if I listen to a new musical artist for the first time and find that I enjoy his/her/their tunes then I almost always download/buy the CD and listen to it to exhaustion. How this started I have no idea, probably during my middle school days when I had nothing else to do except ignore my homework and my annoying little brothers.

But this did not stop when I entered high school or even college. In fact it has only gotten worse. For example, Alex introduced me to The Beatles (I know, I know, I got a late start) and I swear I played The Beatles for three months straight. And then I just couldn’t do it anymore. I had to take six months off before I could listen to them again.

A bit more concerning are the days when I get it into my head that I HAVE to buy something. I am not a shopaholic, but sometimes I will convince myself that I absolutely cannot live without something and I go on a rampage until I find exactly it. One week I will decide that I hate every pair of pants that I own, and I spend way too long trying to find a pair that I actually like.

Usually I am not successful, and my shopping kick is more annoying (for Alex and myself) than helpful. Nevertheless, I continue to spend days at the mall looking for something that I don’t actually need.

As for Alex’s first contribution, I get really when we do something new. He has pointed this out to me on many occasions, even though I never notice anything different. Supposedly when I get excited, I start to walk really fast and giggle way too much. When we were living in Beirut and on our way to a Jazz concert, Alex pointed it out to a whole group and I took every effort to conceal my excitement. His observations are correct, but I never notice them until he says something.

As for his second observation, which is probably a bit more annoying than the former, I can be a bit indecisive at time. But not the usual ambivalence that women tend to carry with them. I like to ask everyone’s opinions, to take them into consideration when making a decision, and then can’t make up my mind if there are any conflicting opinions.

Sometimes I am demanding and will only do things my way, but usually I am neutral and just want other people to make the decision. Even if it is just Alex and I, and we are deciding on what to do for dinner, I will ask him what he wants to do. Usually we will both not have a preference, but I will demand Alex make the decision. That goes the same for a group, and that usually creates a problem as I do not care to make a decision.

All these idiosyncrasies are trivial, and do not affect my overall functioning in society. It is interesting, rather, to dissect how I came to have these peculiarities and observe how they will evolve in the future. It’s fun to think about. Maybe I will work on getting some new ones. Hmm…sort of like shopping for new personality traits.

Idiosyncrasies are nothing to be embarrassed of, and I am not having a mid-life crisis that is making me rethink my whole self. But idiosyncrasies are just traits that we have allowed to consume ourselves. If I change my approach to new music I will not lose an overwhelming part of my personality. Maybe my experiment will be more revealing that I imagine it will be. It can’t hurt to make a concerted effort to break out of the mold and try out some new idiosyncrasies….can it?