Norm's Profile

Introduction

I filled out a profile for AOL Instant Messenger and quickly ran out of space. I thought, why not put a fuller one at my site for those who want to know where I am coming from when they communicate with me. So here it is.

Instant Messenger Profile

(Originally posted on AOL, April 7, 1999; updated: August 5, 2005)

Hi! I like people who speak from the heart; who have depth and dimensions; who strive to integrate heart, mind, and spirit; and who enjoy life, both alone and with others. I like chatting about ethical issues, lovestyle issues, theology, world and national affairs, and writing, among many other matters.

I love the outdoors, especially the ocean and woods.

Oh yes, I'm 53, male, and a poet and writer.

Web page: http://home.comcast.net/~walkswithastick/index.html

E-mail: walkswithastick@comcast.net

AOL Instant Messenger screen name: nea1029

Yahoo Instant Messenger screen name: hikeswithastick

ICQ personal Web page: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/37310204

General Profile

NAME: Norm or, more fully, Norman Elliott Anderson.

AGE: Fifty something. Here I am at different ages.

With a really good friend in May of 1955.

A 1969 graduation photo.

In my comfortable clothes quietly celebrating Christmas in New Jersey in the late 1980s, perhaps 1989? Anyway, it was when, as someone close to me said, I still had hair! Funny.

Helping my brother, Joel, configure a computer at my mother's house in Maine over the Thanksgiving break in 1999. Notice the gorgeous view out the window overlooking Plymouth Pond.

What a change over the years, huh? Oh well. I'm not the one who designed the aging process.

HAIR COLOR: I put "light brown" when I registered for the draft, but the officer objected and said I'm blonde. So that's the official word. Except, well nowadays my beard is tri-colored -- blonde, brown, and, for better or worse, mostly white!

HEIGHT: 6'1"; but enough for body consciousness.

PERSONALITY: Reserved; warm; creative; centered; intellectual; steady; spontaneous; open; straightforward; caring; altruistic enough for that trait, at times, to be to my own chagrin; selfish enough to want to be wanted; assertive enough to be here; just a touch folksy; and, on occasion, a tad silly. People tell me that I am unconventional, but I simply try to think for myself and follow my own way, the latter within whatever constraints I have committed to. I avoid crowds but, when in them, take delight in studying the people. I tend to be more oriented to the written word than many, but I very much enjoy most people I meet.

My Keirsey personality profile (as of September 23, 1995) is ENFP, that is, "Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving." Read about it. There are lots of descriptions of the ENFP personality type. Some of what they say is actually true of me.

LANDSCAPE OF MY MIND: Extremely rugged open terrain, which I enjoy, with:

vast unfenced vistas, ever stretching outward;
deep gorges with high precipices that are the source of much of my intellectual drive, for I live on their edges and sometimes dangle over them;
weather that ranges from bright clarity to dense mist; and
invisible forces in conflict, that conflict giving edge to much of my creative drive, which wells up from a mysterious font deep within.

PEOPLE I LIKE: I especially enjoy people who are kind, creative, reflective, open to possibilities, true to themselves, genuine with me, and capable of laughing at themselves -- the last partly because I like the freedom to be a tease.

I both cheer and take great cheer in those who conscientiously try to root out any bigotry (even of the elitist kind) or malice they can find in themselves and who strive for their impact to be as purely beneficial as they can make it.

When I wrote in the short profile above that I like people who speak from the heart, one text running through my mind was "The Invitation," by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, which begins: "It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing." Actually I'm interested in all kinds of things about people, but I love it when we get down to such concerns as "what you ache for."

Beware! I ask a lot of questions. Even presumptuous ones. I like people who like that. Of course, they are free to answer any way they want to; as am I when asked such questions.

PHYSICAL BARRIERS TO PEOPLE I MIGHT OTHERWISE LIKE: Just two things come to mind, which would be inconsequential if they were not so ubiquitous.

First, cigarette smoke. Of course it is unhealthy, but for me it is irritating and takes away the pleasure of whatever is at hand.
Second, some scented body products, for instance, many, but not all, perfumes and colognes. For me prolonged exposure can be both painful and extremely debilitating for many hours thereafter. I like the subtle odors of the clean water-freshened human body, especially when mingled with the natural scents of the out-of-doors -- spring earth, summer ocean, fall leaves, or winter woods.

FAMILY STATUS: Happily married to a wonderful (and very private) woman, Nancy; also father of two dear sons now in college, each of whom I am proud. One is a pilot and the other a musician.

LOVESTYLE: The opposite end of the spectrum from crude. Other than that, try asking Nancy. (She won't tell.)

LIFESTYLE: Small town, rural and coastal, with the big city not far away.

HUMOR: I like most kinds of humor, but not humor that is cruel or canned, lame or dependent upon the shock of vulgarity. However, my mind especially seeks out irony. If you catch me chuckling when nobody else is, buried irony is often why.

VOCATIONS: Writing (all genres); librarianship (formerly, at least); advocate for human rights (although that is too grandiose a description for the particle in the water bucket that my efforts represent); and issues advisor for religious leaders (no pay there).

FAVORITE OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES: Walking, hiking, bouldering, mountain biking, and most of all snorkeling. I used to put down swamping too; but I haven't done much of that in many years, unless capsizing in a canoe counts. I take that back. I went winter swamping in February of 2000.

HOBBIES: Bookbinding, building my personal library, chess, collecting autographs of intellectuals, commonplacing, genealogical research, photography, and Web site building and design.

INTERESTS: Just about everything, but especially:

intellectual history;
philosophy;
theology;
theological education and higher education more generally, including academic politics;
hermeneutics;
sexual ethics and ethics more generally;
theory of law and government;
social experimentation;
poetry;
ancient literatures;
Norse literature;
Native American history and religion;
paleography;
cosmology;
marine biology; and,
current events.

Some call me a polymath, but I can't live up to that description. However, I am a student of much and -- a rare thing in this over-specialized world -- a generalist, with a wide variety of small specialties.

LANGUAGES STUDIED: English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. I have also dabbled in Old English and Old Norse.

MUSICAL PREFERENCES: Classical, especially J. S. Bach and Mendelsson. But I enjoy some of almost every kind of music, from Gregorian chant and Hildegard of Bingen to Enya. I like to write music but so far have composed only simple tunes and lyrics. I wish I had the ability to put into musical notation some of the never-before-heard symphonies that occasionally play in my head.

MOVIES: I like complex relationship movies that have subtlety and layers of significance. Someday I should post a movie page.

FAVORITE CURRENT TV SHOWS: The News Hour, West Wing, 24, and, believe it or not, Survivor. Just got cable, but so far only the basic service. However, I can't say that I watch TV much.

ANIMALS: I love them, except for intrusive insects, like of the blood-sucking and house-munching kinds, and dogs with irresponsible owners. I am diffidently tolerated by two tabby cats, so long as I obey. Before them, the family had a bird, and I hope to have one again -- a bigger and smarter one next time.

WHERE I LIVE: Massachusetts (now in Rowley; previously in Boston, New Bedford, Wenham, Hamilton, Essex, West Gloucester, and Ipswich). I have also lived in Maine (South Montville, Hartland, and Lee); Cavendish, Vermont; and, for a summer, Arkansas. East Falmouth, Massachusetts has been my home away from home, wherever else I have called home.

Political Profile

As a voter I feel no loyalty to either of the two major political parties in America or to the two-party, as opposed to a multi-party, system; public character and political stance count heavily for me, as opposed to image projection and sloganeering, for instance, which count not at all; and for me riding a political band-wagon, that is, winning for winning's sake, holds no appeal. So I am delighted when I can find good candidates to vote for in minor parties. However, my voting patterns tend to fall along the lines of whichever of the two major parties most accommodates and advances the following positions:

I believe that governmental power has two legitimate uses, to foster goodness in the public sphere and to counter the misuse of power.
I am a classical liberal, in the sense that I advocate democracy subject to respect for human rights, which I think have yet to be fully enumerated and given their due position. (I have read that classical liberalism, ironically, falls within the conservative spectrum; but I do not accept the "conservative" label.)
I believe that people should be treated in society individually and not be discriminated against because of being members of this or that group.
I am steadfastly opposed to racism of any kind from any quarter. In fact, I think that the modeling of humankind as being subdivided into racial categories is unhelpful, often hurtful, and far inferior to the model of individuals being on a vast and complex spectrum.
I celebrate both cultural diversity and cultural mingling.
I have no sympathy for the sort of nationalism that would have one ethnic or religious group lord it over or push out another ethnic or religious group. Government must be of and for ALL the people.
I am a liberationist with regard to social structures that deny equal opportunity, for example, with regard to either men or women.
I am a libertarian in personal matters, believing that the government has no business regulating that which belongs to the personal sphere, except to counter the misuse of power and to arbitrate fairly. Even with regard to issues concerning the beginning and end of human life, the heavy hand of the government is inadequate for treating the delicate and complex ethical issues involved in each situation. Consequently government must be carefully limited in such a way as to preserve delicacies and complexities for decision-making in the personal sphere.
I am not a libertarian in economic matters. I believe it to be part of the business of government to maximize the benefits and mitigate the adverse effects of the prevailing economic system. This maximization and mitigation must be done not for special interests, but for the common good.
I am pro capitalism; but I do not look upon it as inevitable, utopian, automatically humanizing, or deserving of the dominant place in society. Society should be not about the accumulation of wealth or creating living cogs in a competitive social machine, but about the humanizing of its citizens.
I am for private enterprise and free trade, but I draw a line where the government ought to be an equalizer of opportunity, for example by way of law, education, and health care.
I am for universal health care using a single-payer system, and I think that businesses should be freed of the burden of being third parties in health insurance.
I am for negating the influence of money in politics. Politics should be about the common good, nothing more or less.
I look upon land ownership not as ownership in a sense of absolute right but as stewardship.
I believe that government has a responsibility to protect the balance of nature from human disturbance, remembering that human beings are part of that balance; also that government should deploy policies that encourage and enable society to live in creative harmony with nature.
I am an internationalist, believing that the security of liberty depends upon world security, once a certain threshold of threat has been crossed, and upon the protection of human rights world-wide, once a certain threshold of violation has been crossed.
I have little faith in warfare and great concerns about it but have decided that on occasion it can be justified even in this extremely dangerous and volatile nuclear age, however only as a counter to the misuse of power and rarely even in those cases.
I am opposed to compelling people to fight in wars they do not believe are just.
I am a minimalist with regard to governmental paperwork. Government should require as little paperwork of citizens as absolute necessity demands. Excessive paperwork is one of the major ways that government intrudes upon life.
Except for extraordinary emergencies and major capital investment, I believe that government should exercise pay-as-you-go discipline -- rare deficits, minimal debt.
I believe that government should be strictly limited by its mission, which I have delineated in a separate document at this site. However, within that mission, government should be measured not by the degree to which it is limited, but by its beneficial impact upon society, a precondition of which is finding the right balance of government to the rest of society so that critical precautions are taken, vital needs are met, important investments are made for the future good of society, and all of this is done without unduly weighing down the public.

Religious Profile

This section has been moved to a separate page.

Contact Norm

Posted, April 15, 1999; new url, January 27, 2004; last modified, August 5, 2005

Break out of someone's frames