INFP Introverts: The 64-Color Box

“Through the years, I have encountered people and been involved in events that have had huge impacts, knocked off rough corners, lifted me to the heights of joy, plunged me into the depth of sorrow and anguish, taught me to laugh, especially at myself—in other words, my life experiences and the people with whom I shared them have been my teachers.

“At times, I have felt like a helpless bit of flotsam, at one moment stranded in a placid backwater that knew not, cared not, that I was there, then swept out to be hurled about in an unfeeling sea. At other times, I felt I was being sucked under by strong, unknowing currents toward annihilation. Yet somehow, looking back through my life, with its downs and its ups, its despairs and its joys, I believe that I was following some overall plan—though to be sure there were many times when I strayed from the course. Yet I was never truly lost. It seems to me now that the flotsam speck was being gently nudged or fiercely blown along a very specific route by an unseen, intangible wind. The flotsam speck that was—that is—me.

[…]

“The genes that were handed down to me by my parents were created long, long ago. And my inherited traits were molded by the people and the events surrounding my early years.

[…]

“My mother, Vanne, now aged ninety-four, has always loved to tell stories about my early fascination with animals and concern for their welfare. One of her favorites is of the time when, around the age of eighteen months, I collected a whole handful of earthworms from the London garden and took them to bed with me.

“‘Jane,’ she said, staring at the wriggling collection, ‘if you keep them here they’ll die. They need the earth.’

“So I hurriedly collected up all the worms and toddled back with them into the garden.

“Soon after this, we went to stay with some friends who had a house near a wild rocky beach in Cornwall. When we went down to the sea, I was enthralled by the tide pools and their teeming life. No one realized that the seashells I carried back to the house in my bucket were all alive. When Vanne came up to my room, she found little bright yellow sea snails crawling everywhere—the bedroom floor, up the walls, behind the wardrobe. When she explained that the snails would die when taken from the sea, I became hysterical. The entire household, she says, had instantly to drop what it was doing and help me collect the snails so that they could be rushed back to the sea.”

—Jane Goodall (The Jane Goodall Institute)

Amazon.com: Ricky is a drug dealer but, of all the characters, he seems to be the most levelheaded and the most sure of who he is.

Alan Ball: He’s certainly the most, I think, evolved. You look at Ricky and you look at what he’s grown up in, the environment of repression and brutality, and it’s amazing. What is it that kept him from becoming one of those kids who goes to school with a gun and just starts shooting? Something—his ability to see the beauty in life is what kept him from just shutting down and becoming twisted and brutal. I think everybody has that ability, and we all make choices.

Amazon.com: There’s something so simple and poetic about Ricky’s encounter with the plastic bag that just keeps whirling in the breeze. You’re not sure what it means, but the simple beauty of it has a profound effect. How did that come about?

Alan Ball: I had an encounter with a plastic bag! And I didn’t have a video camera, like Ricky does. I’m sure some people would look at that and go, “What a psycho!” but it was a very intense and very real moment. There’s a Buddhist notion of the miraculous within the mundane, and I think we certainly live in a culture that encourages us not to look for that. I do like, though, that Ricky says, “Video’s a poor excuse, but it helps me remember.” Because it’s not the video he’s focused on; it’s the experience itself. He’s very connected to the world around him.

We can live without technology and nice clothes and ear-splitting sex, but we can’t live without peace of mind and a basic understanding between ourselves and others…

The lotus flower symbolizes a heart or self that’s untainted by personal adversity or by the pollution of the outside world. The lotus starts its journey buried in water, muck, and mire and steadily grows towards the light—rising towards the water’s surface. Once it breaks the surface, the lotus blossoms with a beautiful flower that’s untouched by the muddy water surrounding it.

“What I learned from the great suffering of my childhood was that compassion and love and non-violence are necessities of happiness—absolutely mandatory for true happiness. We can live without technology and nice clothes and ear-splitting, sex but we can’t live without peace of mind and a basic understanding between ourselves and others.

“What I am is a humanitarian and I just happen to be coming from a religious perspective. Mother Teresa was involved in a mammoth effort to rescue human beings from the causes and effects of suffering because that was her divine inspiration from her faith practice. Likewise, the Dalai Lama is concerned with doing this same work according to a Buddhist perspective. It’s all the same perspective. It’s all about the compassion and love that’s necessary for us to avoid suffering and live harmonious lives and religions can be a great inspiration for human beings in bringing this about.

“If I said I was a devout Christian and wanted to create a religious-based human rights foundation, no one would bat an eye at me but, because I’m coming from a perspective that most people are unfamiliar with, people question it and need it to be validated. I’m not a miracle-worker, or a glamorous guru, or a reputed scholar sporting several degrees. I’m just a man who’s been touched in a very direct way with love and compassion. I hear the voice in my heart and have to respond by sharing that joy with others. I don’t do it through evangelism or proselytizing, because I don’t believe in those things. People should follow the voice as they hear it and, if that voice is Christian or Catholic or Hindu or whatever, you should follow it with all your might and use it to benefit others. That’s my way of legitimizing my work and the capacity in which I serve. I live by example, by manifesting kindness and compassion and wisdom.

“If people decide not to recognize my title or function, then so be it. I don’t care about that. What I care about is sending out a positive message to humanity, creating a spiritual revolution that will teach others the value of basic human kindness and compassion. I’m going to keep doing this work until I take my last breath because there are much greater things to me than human legitimization.”*

“If there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations. If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities. If there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace between neighbors. If there is to be peace between neighbors, there must be peace in the home. If there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the heart.” —Lao-Tse

“Young people, Lord.

“Do they still call it infatuation? That magic ax that chops away the world in one blow, leaving only the couple standing there trembling?

“Whatever they call it, it leaps over anything, takes the biggest chair, the largest slice, rules the ground wherever it walks, from a mansion to a swamp, and its selfishness is its beauty. Before I was reduced to singsong, I saw all kinds of mating. Most are two-night stands trying to last a season. Some, the riptide ones, claim exclusive right to the real name, even though everybody drowns in its wake. People with no imagination feed it with sex—the clown of love.

“They don’t know the real kinds, the better kinds, where losses are cut and everybody benefits. It takes a certain intelligence to love like that—softly, without props. But the world is such a showpiece, maybe that’s why folks try to outdo it, put everything they feel onstage just to prove they can think up things too: handsome scary things like fights to the death, adultery, setting sheets afire. They fail, of course. The world outdoes them every time.

“While they are busy showing off, digging other people’s graves, hanging themselves on a cross, running wild in the streets, cherries are quietly turning from green to red, oysters are suffering pearls and children are catching rain in their mouths expecting the drops to be cold but they’re not; they are warm and smell like pineapple before they get heavier and heavier, so heavy and fast they can’t be caught one at a time. Poor swimmers head for shore while strong ones wait for lightning’s silver veins. Bottle-green clouds sweep in, pushing the rain inland where palm trees pretend to be shocked by the wind. Women scatter shielding their hair and men bend low holding the women’s shoulders against their chests. I run too, finally. I say finally because I do like a good storm. I would be one of those people on the weather channel leaning into the wind while lawmen shout in megaphones: ‘Get moving!’”

—Toni Morrison, Love

“Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am. A reluctant enthusiast and part-time crusader. A half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the west. It is even more important to enjoy it while you can, while it’s still there. So get out there, hunt, fish, mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forest, encounter the grit, climb a mountain, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and elusive air. Sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness of the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. enjoy yourselves. Keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive. And I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk bound people with their hearts in safe deposit boxes and their eyes hypnotized by their desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.” —Edward Abbey

“It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars, and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. but, conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.” —Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“True love doesn’t come to you; it has to be inside you.” —Julia Roberts

“There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart—pursue those.” —Unknown

“We’re all a little weird and life’s a little weird and, when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” —Unknown