We The People
In an embarrassment of riches, I had the opportunity to learn so much about the brains of 3 of my 4 introverts today.
Yessa wasn’t feeling well, but the rest of us drove to Jackson, TN to take part in the local “We The People” solidarity march. We agreed to go to this one for multiple reasons:
1) After the Climate Strike in Nashville yesterday, there wasn’t another large scale protest march organized for today.
2) A Nashville one would have been another huge crowd.
3) Jackson, TN has an active Indivisible group, and we suspected it would be a smaller, manageable size for our tribe.
We left home around 8 a.m. and pulled into the parking lot where we were supposed to meet.
There were four people gathered around a car.
I suddenly realized we had hit the other terror point for my introverts.
Oh, gosh. A march could be too big, and it could also be too small.
I confirmed with them later that if I had offered everyone an out to not get out of the van at this point, they probably would have taken it.
But get out we did, and it ended up being wonderful.
It was eventually a crowd of about 20 folks and one dog. Most were local, but another person had driven over from the Nashville area, too.
Cindy, the organizer, gave great pep talks and had many protest signs and Baby T balloons for people to hold. She passed out buttons, stickers, United States flags, and clearly reminded everyone we are a loving, peaceful people.
Rather than march, we gathered next to a busy road and waved at vehicles as they drove past.
After about an hour in the toasty sun, receiving many honks and waves and only one angry shout, Cindy offered one final pep talk and thanks and we loaded up for our lunch stop and drive home.
I had been considering my guesses about how my tribe felt about the event, and how grateful I was for the open-hearted attitudes in going with me even though outings like this cause them anxiety rather than a rush of energy as they do me.
With the majority of my introvert experts in the car I was able to try to understand their view of the world even more.
“I’ve been thinking about a difference between extroverts and introverts. For me, the fear of not connecting with people is much greater than any fear of embarrassment about an outreach of friendship being rejected. Is it the opposite for you?”
That got a big “yes!” from them. That felt like a really important thing for me to understand. And also one of the reasons, I suspect, they can get tired of being close to me when I’m in a crowd, talking to all sorts of people. I don’t care if someone rejects me, but they love me, and would feel that for me, even if I don’t.
And then we had a good laugh when Buster said, “Dad won the introvert lottery. One in a million chance. Now he has his own private extrovert.”
My own private introvert admitted later that he actually liked standing by the side of the road.
