What defines us???

Last night was one of those marathon talking sessions that I frequently subject Jilly to. First of all let me say, that I appreciate the fact that she is able to tolerate my constant speaking, when I get in these modes. Secondly, for the benefit of any that read this that don't know me that well, it is worth pointing out, that I know that I talk WAY to much, and my opinion generally doesn't waiver. It is as though I get "wound up" and the flood gates open, and out comes Josh's thoughts. That in itself seems fairly normal, but the thing is, that I have a hard time just "throwing something out there" for someone to think about. I tend to have this way of talking a point to death. This gets amplified, of course, when someone throws out a differing point of view, or offers a "reason" that something is the way it is. I just cant help but offer my opinion ...

Here is the curve ball. I am aware of the things in the paragraph above, but I still struggle with moderating my thoughts. I spend ALOT of time thinking, maybe too much (but is that seriously possible, or merely something someone once said who was too apathetic to give the effort {different blog}) and out of that thinking (especially the last few years) I have taken the time to learn ALOT about myself. I have also began to take the time to observe, and listen and learn alot about others around me. I am after all an "attention to detail" kind of guy. I take great pride in this. One obviously has to be careful to balance, and not be judgmental, or overly critical; but all to often, I think the majority of people error in the other direction, they basically gloss over the detail ... sometimes simply ignore it all together. I did for many years of my life. I have always had a decent "radar" when it came to people. I have generally speaking been given a gift, when it came to knowing what to generally expect, from people of differing personality types. I chose to basically ignore that for most of my young adult life.

I made Jilly suffer through "Maverick" recently, which as corny as it may be is one of my favorite movies. Maverick goes through the movie trying to explain to his fellow card sharks, that "everyone has tells" ... tells that show what they are thinking. A lot of people may think he is simply referring to if they have good cards or not ... but it is much deeper than that, if you truly look, the tell shows much more than that. It gives you a glimpse of what that person is actually thinking. What emotion are they overcome with at that moment ... are they "excited", "happy", "anxious", "frustrated", "distraught" ... once you identify the emotion, and you pair it with the event, you get a decent idea what is going on in that persons brain ... that is their actual tell ..... that is the moment when you get a quick glimpse of which way that person is leaning.

All that being said, I guess my point is, that I like being an attention to detail guy. I also firmly believe, that life would be a bit less complicated, if more people took the time to stop and pay attention. So as much as I annoy myself, (and I am sure others) with my analysis, I cant see stopping. I don't think I have it in me, to stop paying attention to the details.