Chris and I found a great article to share with fellow Introverts:

An Introvert Stands Up for the Right to Stand Alone by Mary Carpenter

Not until my early 50s did I make a startling discovery: Most of my close friends are introverts. As I brought up the subject with one after another, we spoke in low, confessional voices of feeling numb with fatigue following workdays or social outings we’d otherwise enjoyed, of frequent longings to retreat to a quiet place.”

Read more here.

I came across an excellent article at Bankrate.com, Networking for introverts: a 5-step plan, in Penelope Trunk’s column, The Brazen Careerist. The article recommends the following strategies for building and maintaining a network for job search or other purposes:

1. Use-email since you are probably more comfortable with written communication than talking on the telephone.
2. Read everything so you’ll what’s going on in the community without having to find out from other people - this may give you a reason to initiate communication with someone.
3. Go to parties rather than dinners. For many of us, getting out there is the hard part, so why not make the most of the time and effort and connect with as many people as possible once you’re out?
4. Help others. If you come across information that will be helpful to someone, pass it on. I know from experience that this is a very effective way to develop your network, that is not too challenging for an introvert.
5. Send New Year’s cards. Again, it’s about written communication being easier for us. I don’t know why she mentions New Year’s in particular - I think any event is a good time to connect with someone. Enter birthdays and other special occasions in your calendar, and you’ll be reminded when it’s time to get to send a card or e-greeting. If you belong to Ryze.com, you can be notified by email of upcoming birthdays of people within your network. I have often sent e-greetings after receiving these reminders, and people are usually pleasantly surprised that I even knew it was their birthday!

If you find this interesting, be sure to read the rest of the article.

As a general rule, we introverts tend to value our privacy, and may therefore be seen by others as being secretive. An example that comes to mind is an episode of “Dharma and Greg” where Dharma discovered that Greg had a locked box and felt he was keeping secrets from her when he wouldn’t let her see what was in it. As an introvert, I understood that it was just something he chose not to share, and I am that way with some things, but not everything. I am usually pretty comfortable answering a direct question, even if I wouldn’t be likely to volunteer the information otherwise.

I was therefore a little uncomfortable last week when a colleague “tagged” me in his blog with a challenge to write about five little known facts about myself. Another part of me decided it could be fun, and realized I didn’t have to reveal my deepest secrets, just stuff that would not normally come up. So I took the challenge and wrote about it in my own blog.

The other side of the game is that you have to tag five other bloggers to do the same. Not knowing many bloggers who hadn’t already participated, I took the easy way out and tagged my three fellow contributors to this blog, Marki, Chris and Dr. Maggie. Will they do it? Watch this blog and find out!

I’m thinking of how sound affects introverts. Many introverts complain of noise – often in the workplace, sometimes at home. The other side of that coin is that extraverts seem to enjoy noise. You know how it is when you’re enjoying the silence and some well-meaning extravert turns on the radio.

At a meditation center, after twenty minutes of blissful meditative silence, there are always a few slightly hysterical extraverts trying to start a conversation before we even leave the room. Conversational gambits are not welcome as I try to hang on to the silence and carry it outside.

Music can be blasted at dictators to encourage their surrender and it can be sung to babies to help them sleep. The boundaries of these sounds are measured in Hz and decibels, but measuring a thing doesn’t explain it. Extraverts run to sound as if to an islet of sunlit joy, while introverts run from it as if from chaotic anarchy.

I think – and this is only a theory – that sound is an irresistible magnet to the “outer” world, which is where extraverts replenish energy and introverts spend it. Everyone needs to decide when and where to spend their energy. It might be that, for an introvert, only solitude can provide the power of choice respecting sound.

I watched The Station Agent on DVD this past weekend. The main character, Fin, moves to Newfoundland, New Jersey, after inheriting an abandoned train station from a friend, where he becomes friends with Joe and Olivia. The movie is excellent and received a number of awards, but what I really enjoyed was the interaction between Fin and Joe.

Fin is clearly an introvert and has absolutely no hesitation in telling Joe that he prefers to go for walks alone. People who don’t understand introverts could easily view this as being snobbish, unfriendly, or even rude, and I’m sure we’ll all worn those labels at one time or another.

Joe, on the other hand, is clearly an extravert, and is constantly seeking Fin’s company. At one point when Fin says he just wants to read, Joe convinces him to come and sit with him, telling him, “I’ll read too.” He lasted only 20 minutes before he wanted to start talking again.

If you haven’t yet seen this movie, I highly recommend it.

[In response to Janet:]

Five little-known things about me:

1. My gorgeous smile is fake; my dentist is a genius.

2. String Theory excites me tremendously. I hope they won’t disprove it before i’m through with it.

3. In 1960, my father buried our deceased hamster in the cornerstone of a skyscraper.

4. I want to abolish shaking hands; it’s downright foolish health-wise. I think we should do like the Orientals, and make a small bow while shaking our own hands.

5. I’d like to wear a burka but only voluntarily, of course. Think of it - no matter what I look like, I could just fling that thing on and be properly dressed. Also I’d save on hairdressers.

On January 23, Janet “tagged” Chris, Maggie and me in her blog post to write five little known things about ourselves. On Feb. 5, Chris met the challenge. Now I’m here to meet the challenge.

Five little known things about me:

1. In 1970, my jr. high band rode on a float in a local parade and played Mission Impossible. I played flute.
2. For the past 15 years, I’ve kept a fossil of a fish on my desk for good luck - a gift from my grad school adviser.
3. I like graham crackers and milk in the afternoon.
4. I’m an avid recycler.
5. It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon, and I just woke up from a wonderful nap.

A friend came across this at the Anagram Hall of Fame:

CONVERSATION = VOICES RANT ON

I’m sure it was an introvert who thought that up! Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if most anagrams are the work of introverts.