Two Kinds of People.

I’ve kind of come to a systematic way of thinking of people: People are introverts or extroverts. Let’s capitalize them: Introverts & Extroverts.

I was telling my mom a little bit about my theory when we were talking on the phone last night – and I was saying that she was an Extrovert in a family of Introverts. My mother insists that she falls in the middle – that she is neither.

Then she told me a story about being in the checkout line at Wal*Mart, and that the people in front of her had two little boys. Cute little boys. Both under the age of five. She noticed them at first because the youngest one, about 1.5 years old is screaming his head off for a snack that his mom is feeding him because he can’t feed himself. Because he has FLIPPER ARMS. And them she noticed that his older brother had flipper arms too. My mom figures it’s genetic, since both boys had the same feature, and she really empathized with the parents of two children who were too young to adapt to their disability. She didn’t want to stare, but she was fascinated. She wondered if they couldn’t wait to get home and take off their shoes and run around. She wondered if other people around them were staring. What were they thinking about? How were they reacting to seeing these boys?

So, she and my dad get into the car and my mom asked my dad if he noticed the two little boys. And my dad says, “What little boys?”

“The one screaming his off and his brother,” said my mother.

My dad didn’t notice them at all. Lost in his own little checkout line world of new gum flavors and tabloid headlines.

Introvert & Extrovert.