The Mastermind

Hey everybody! Sorry it's been a couple of days. The kids and I are in Nashville, TN, for the present, and really enjoying ourselves! It's so funny...sometimes when I come to Nashville, I can't wait to see everyone: old friends, extended family, people from my old church, etc., but sometimes when I come, I feel the strong need to hide out. This is one such trip. It is strange to me why I feel that way sometimes and at other times exactly the opposite. Curiouser and curiouser. Anyways, the kids, as always, are having a blast. And really I am too. Tonight, we're celebrating my 30th birthday...gasp, although really my birthday is coming up on Tuesday. Cheesecake Factory, here we come!

So, periodically I'm focusing blogs on specific people, and today is one of those days. I feel the need to tell you about Kenny, my husband. Maybe it's because I'm really missing him right now, but he's been on my mind loads, so I thought I'd write about him. Here goes:

Kenny and I are Myers Briggs freaks, so I'll start by saying he's a consumate INTJ. In psychobabble, that means Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, and Judging. All clear now? I thought not! The 'I' means he prefers to have a small, extremely close-knit group of friends than to be in a large crowd. It does NOT mean he's shy. The 'N' means he's a visionary. A brainstormer. However, he's borderline on this, so he dwells in 's' a lot too, which is being detail-oriented. The 'T' means that thoughts and facts guide his decisions more than emotions. The 'J' means he's more structured than spontaneous. He's NOT borderline on the 'J'! If you look up the 'INTJ' in "Please Understand Me II" (our collective favorite book), you'll find that the title for INTJ is "Mastermind." Oh, yeah! That's my husband! He's a Mastermind!! Basically, the Mastermind is a person who ought to be a military general. The world is a chessboard. He can contingency plan better than any other group on the planet. "If we do a, then here's what b will look like. However,if we do c, then here's what will happen." (But a hundred steps further...) Kenny can look at any system, be it industrial, mechanical, communicative, emotional, financial, whatever else, and immediately tell how to make it better and more efficient. If you own a business, you NEED my husband! (He's actually gainfully employed as a helicopter pilot, so that was not a plug for a job!) Kenny is a man who does not make wrong steps. He's a Midas. I'm astonished at how it seems that everything he does just turns to gold. He's just brilliant. Although he'd never want you to know that. (You can imagine what a pain this whole Midas-thing is when I'm trying to beat him at a board game.) This brings me to another thing about the 'Mastermind.' He's a reluctant leader. "Please Understand Me" says that the Mastermind will wait on the sidelines until all the other leaders prove to be inept, and then the Mastermind will come in and fix things. This is Kenny exactly. He does not crave being a leader. Quite the opposite. And this is why he is, in fact, a truly amazing leader. As his wife, I have had the privilege of watching person after person recognize that Kenny is special. Wherever he goes, whatever he does, he seems to end up in charge. His bosses can't help but notice how capable he is. He has a brilliant mind, and a well-controlled tongue. Sometimes, it can be intimidating to think what it is that Kenny really needs me for. He seems so well-rounded. And brilliant. But I think he needs my spontaneity. He needs my emotionalism, although he may have the inclination to eschew it every so often! He needs my ability to mix in a crowd. Also, his leadership style is a 'visionary', according to "Please Understand Me," and mine is a 'catalyst.' The best Visionary in the world might not actually DO anything without a Catalyst. But, together we CAN do anything we set our minds to! So, I'm grateful for my brilliant, humble, quick-thinking, chessboard-seeing, buff, handsome, football-loving, contingency-planning husband Kenny. And I'm grateful that he still needs me. I love you, honey. Talk to you all soon!