Introverts and Extroverts: A Forgotten Virtue of the Need for Both

"It is the blood of the Lunas to be quite, for only a quiet man can learn the secrets of the earth that are necessary to planting."

Rudolfo Anaya (Bless Me, Ultima 41)

Specifically speaking of the Luna's, mother's side of the family, the farmers, the students, the content, can also be referred to as the growers or learners. This can also be argued from the quote that the "quiet man learns the secrets of the earth [which] are necessary to [growth]."

We then reason that only a quiet person can learn the secrets to life that are necessary for growth and learning. Though this is only half of the quote focusing on the Luna's side of the family, this reasoning can be absolutely true for them. 

A recent TED talk by Susan Cain reiterates this same reasoning and giving evidence to why the act of being quiet for some people means growth as much as for some people who thrive being in the spotlight grow just as equally.

She gave a talk called "The Power of Introverts," which was based off of her recent book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking which emphasized the fact that it is okay to be alone. Especially in society today where everything is always going, always in action, but this is not how all people thrive. Historically some of the greatest people who changed the world like Gandhi were not necessarily great because of what he did among people but because of necessary time alone he had to create these grand thoughts and acts. Introverts thrive in the quite of the world--that is where they feel most alive—that is where their growth happens.

She then echoes this in a quote saying: 

“There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.”

The main character Antonio thrives in the ways of his mother's family, but this does not make him inferior to his father’s more 'extrovert' way but that is how he grows. He grows in the quite.

Growth is different for all. Certain plants grow better in different areas, each is essential, but each requiring different means to become their complete full potential.

 

Four Score and Seven Years Ago...

"Better the colony should perish than a principle."

Alejo Carpentier (Kingdom of This World 66)

For some reason the word 'perish' in this sentence created a connection for me to a powerful speech written back in the nineteenth century. Visionaries and liberals from the novel quoted this line in response to the French colonists permitting the black slaves to some political rights. These men, who despite the eminent threat of a possible civil war still understood the right for human equality.

A similar visionary, Abraham Lincoln echoed these same words in his speech the Gettysburg Address, also campaigned for the continuation of the rights of man over the rights of the federal or state government.

Quoting a few lines:

“…dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal… we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The principle is that equality exists among all human beings, an inalienable right, which was a strong motive and cause, whether directly or indirectly, for this civil war in the United States. The death statistics are unfathomable for this war and other civil revolts around the world. Specifically in the United States it was in the name and principle of freedom, showing that the colony, country, community, was worth very little if no one was willing to fight to the basic principles to command a country by.

Where a hundred and fifty years later, can we still say that any sacrifice is worthy for divine, correct, and inherent principles to continue forward? Is it better to perish than let a principle endure?

Lincoln understood that sacrifices were necessary for true principles to endure and the founders of the United States before him, or other ‘liberalists’ or ‘visionaries’ for that matter. It is indispensable that every citizen understands, lives for, and protects the liberties of equality and government by the people, that so many before have paid the ultimate price.

 

Tip of An Iceberg

"As he watched the slow scattering of the herd grazing knee-deep in clover, he developed a keen interest in the existence of certain plants to which nobody else paid attention...he foraged with his only hand among the familiar grasses for those spurned growths to which he had given no thought before. To his surprise he discovered the secret life of..."

Alejo Carpentier (Kingdom of This World 17)

In Capentier's novel, The Kingdom of This World, he inserts a handful of deep and thought provoking lines such as the one quoted above. The character Macandal in this novel notices for the first time, perhaps after losing his arm, the tiny details that make live in life. He began with the plants, and then explored into the plants to see the life of smaller plants and insects that any passerby-er often fails to notice. 

This same principle is demonstrated in the life and make-up of an iceberg. Not too long ago I came across a video produced by BBC which displayed the birth and life of an iceberg.  Often with an iceberg we are only able to see about 1/8 of the complete structure which leaves the majority hidden to the naked eye which only see the tip above water; and where icebergs are made up of frozen freshwater floating in a salt water ocean they are like an oasis in a desert.

Similarly this situation is relative to Macandal’s experience lying on the grass, yes, on a grander level, but Macandal who had always seen life by the tip but never really having excavated its true riches until now.

We can learn the secret life of plants and bugs and underwater arctic waters, but the most significant lesson would be that on first glance what we see is mostly likely only a taste of reality or the potential each location and experience has to offer. The "diamond in the rough" as Aladdin states is truly all around us. 

The majority of time people skim over life and its’ experiences like a water skier, quickly, and without much depth but the uniqueness of people, our surroundings, and the moments of life in general must be carefully analyzed and detailed to realize the force and energy that is often available to us if we stop and let it soak in us so we can discover its' secrets.

 

Listening to History That Did Not Live In Vain.

[. . .truth, whose mother is history, who is the rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, example and lesson to the present, and warning to the future.] 

Jorge Luis Borges (Ficciones 53)

I was interesting to me that Borges was impressed to analyze these lines from Don Quixote among all the many lines he could have chosen. These lines exemplify which truth is. Not only what is now but what is was--the same as now because it never changes.

Upon reading these lines in this text I immediately thought of eighth grade history class and a quote by Edmund Burke which we had to memorize, it said:

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."

Through all of these years this line of truth has stood tall in my mind without being forgotten. Edmund Burke lived in the eighteenth century, and was a voice for political conservatism. 

Though what I find incredibly interesting is that he relates truth to the mother of history. How can the study of history shape our future? And how does listening and benefiting from our mothers, our caregivers, life providers, and our nurturers be just as life changing for each of us.

Much of it comes to a central agreement that we are not on our own. We have our mothers to help teach and provide for us and in another aspect of life we have history. The fact that people have not lived in vain, and sometimes it is in vain if we take no concern to see what they lived and died for—a similar attribute of our mothers.

The truth that history is the best teacher, and also a warning for our future, and teaches us here in the present emphasizes Burke’s words that the truths in history are here for our benefit but if we choose to ignore it the same events are going to happen to us—that this mother, history and life already lived doesn’t need to be a cycle of destruction but a lesson for the future of humanity.