Website owner:  James Miller

Some strong traits in my personality




   Care of personal possessions.  One of my notable personality 
      traits is the care that I take of personal possessions.  It 
      is a trait that goes back to childhood.  I take especially 
      good care of things.  It is almost unheard of for me to 
      break anything.  And I very rarely lose anything.  I still 
      have many of my childhood possessions including a jackknife 
      that I was given when I was seven and the 22 rifle and 
      fishing rod and reel that I bought with the money I earned 
      working for Father.  I still wear the bathrobe that Mother 
      and Father gave me when I was in high school.  About the 
      only childhood possessions that I don't still have are those 
      that Mother and Father packed away somewhere or threw out.  
      It is a strong trait of mine that I always treat everything 
      with respect and care.  And if it happens to be something 
      that belongs to someone else I treat it with double care. 

   Tidiness.  I am tidy.  Whether at home or at work everything 
      has its place and all is tidy.  It is an important, deep 
      part of my personality.  I am a person of order.  I don't 
      like disorder.  It is just the way I am.  I couldn't change 
      if I wanted to.  It is one of the fundamental building 
      blocks of my personality.  Where the trait comes from, or 
      why I am this way, I don't know. 

   Indifference to fad and fashion.  I am totally oblivious to all 
      fad and fashion.  Other people know what all the latest fads 
      and fashions are in clothes, haircuts, jokes, ideas, etc. 
      and follow them.  I don't know what the fads and fashions 
      are and couldn't care less.  I am still wearing clothes that 
      are twenty years old and I am sure they are way out of 
      style.  I guess I have a certain contempt for fad and 
      fashion.  Perhaps concern about fad and fashion comes from 
      the desire to be accepted by the crowd (or fear of being 
      rejected by the crowd).  I give no thought to acceptance by 
      the crowd so perhaps that is the reason for my lack of 
      interest in fad and fashion. 

   Efficiency mindedness.  I am very efficiency minded.  I just 
      don't like waste --- waste of either money or energy.  And 
      this has a strong structuring effect on everything in my 
      life.  Almost all my daily routines and ways of doing things 
      have been thought through at one time or another and 
      designed and structured according to the dictates of 
      efficiency.  This trait combines with my Henry David Thoreau 
      type philosophy (i.e. the best life is the simple life, keep 
      your needs few, the best things in life are free) to order 
      my entire lifestyle in all aspects.  And part of it is 
      simple frugality, too, I am sure.  I do a cost/effectiveness 
      study on everything I do.  

   Frugality.  I am frugal.  Many people have more than one car.  I 
      have only one (12 years old).  I will almost never make a special 
      trip for anything because I figure the real cost of driving is 30 
      or 40 cents per mile.  Instead I will try to pick the item up 
      on the way home from work or wait until I have several 
      things that I have to get before I make the trip.  We take 
      advantage of all of the supermarket half price sales and try 
      to buy in quantity at half price those items that we use 
      regularly.  We buy only at stores with good prices such as K 
      Mart and Evans.  I wear my clothes until they are worn out 
      and then I will consider patching them if I think it is 
      worth it.  We eat in a way that most people would consider 
      very frugal.  Our typical dinner is a small chicken thigh, 
      some rice and a tossed salad.  For variety we will 
      substitute a white potato or sweet potato for the rice.  We 
      never have desert.  But our eating not only has the 
      advantage of being inexpensive, it is also much healthier 
      than the way most Americans eat.  On my last physical I came 
      up looking so well on all the tests that the doctor told me 
      he didn't know what I was doing, but whatever it was, keep 
      doing it.  There are very few luxuries in our life.  We 
      spend almost no money on entertainment.  We never go out to 
      restaurants.  Sometimes we might stop in at a Mac Donald's 
      and have a regular cheeseburger, french fries, and an ice 
      cream sunday but that is about it.  And it is not like I am 
      really sacrificing anything.  The things I really enjoy 
      doing most are free --- reading, walking, reflecting, 
      writing, listening to good TV documentaries, listening to 
      classical music, etc.. 

      June 1991




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