Quote Originally Posted by Kim View Post
I research for a living because I want to know things. When something catches my interest, I want to know everything about it and get obsessed with it until I get tired of it and then I will often (not always) drop it completely. So I can tell you every detail about random topics like Mount Everest sherpas, Yoruba spirituality, life under the German welfare system, the U.S. healthcare system and its effects on people, undocumented immigrants along the U.S. border, transgender rights, Cuban photography, alcoholism and recovery, schizophrenia, combat PTSD, dog rescue, and a bunch of other topics, mostly related to people and their stories in different contexts, because at some point in my life those caught my interest. I like to look at issues from all angles, especially the human experience and including suffering, sadness, and violence. I want to know people and their lives, histories, and thoughts and I like to help them connect the dots if they need help connecting them.

I am an academic because I love to do research and because it allows me to change direction when I get bored. I love to read, listen, and connect. I write articles about contemporary migration movements, literature, film, and art and make connections historically and socioculturally. I love to interact with students and talk to them about their plans, assess their potential, and help them work through all the possibilities.

In a nutshell.
I read this yesterday when you posted it and I really find your interests fascinating. I bet you can carry on an excellent conversation on any number of subjects with all kinds of different people. You can probably find some topic of interest to go on about with anyone you meet. Its a valuable thing, that's for sure, and I admire it..

I was sitting in the kitchen doing some mindless chores with my Mom just now and thinking about what you said here. Then something suddenly dawned on me that is too much not to share now. So I logged the computer back on just to say this:.

Did you notice how our hidden agenda's are quite different? That confirms a point I am always trying to make, that you, and Ann as well, think very different from me. (I wonder what @anndelise's HA list looks like? More like yours, or more like mine?

So I was sitting and thinking of what you said here, and how you communicated your Te list much more directly and clearly than I did. Your really interesting Te list. When you asked it of me there was no hesitation in me knowing just where that "need to know" seems to focus for me, but I did struggle a bit with just how to explain it. I did the best I could.

Now today I was just reflecting on how my list is just not as clear(?) as yours. Was that the right word? No. Then I realized - mine is more hidden than yours!

Look at your list. That doesn't look like any hidden agenda. Its your life.

It looks just like Te is something you VALUE.