Personally, I don’t mind MBTI as a way to arbitrarily self-label. It has no scientific validity, but I figure if an MBTI type speaks to you then use it- others can see it as a shorthand to grasp something about what you see in yourself. I’m a consistent INTP, and perhaps it’s the Barnum Effect but I don’t mind adopting that identity.
I don’t have a huge problem with entertaining ideas that aren’t actually ‘true’ if they have some other use (in this case, in an expressive way). I enjoy stories and I enjoy the randomness of voluntarily submitting to a system of rules or fictions (a game type Caillois calls “Alea”). I’ve adopted my girlfriend’s brother’s occasional decision-making method of rolling dice occasionally. At upscale restaurants I like to take the waiter’s recommendation. I do not believe in horoscopes but I find them to be a fun tool to break out of inclinations in the day’s choices. I am not threatened by their cosmic meaninglessness.
I’m 27 today. The big 3^3.
I haven’t hosted a birthday for myself in years (although friends often put something together for me.) I knew I wanted to write about my birthday, record something, but there isn’t much new to say. I thought about the meaning of it [not my birth- just the day itself], and its proximity to any kind of recognized global event. I suppose it was pretty close to Desert Storm?
I’m living in Mumbai now. This weekend is the first festival of the year in many states in India. Although most of the Hindu festivals are on the lunar calendar, today is a regular solar event. The Sun is entering Capricorn, I’m told, the deep winter is ending and harvest season starts soon. There’s a kite festival every year on 14-15 January.
Much nicer calendar association to my birthday than Desert Storm.