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The Split Personality of Ralph Carlson

left-brain-right-brain

Image by vaXzine via Flickr

One of my personal handicaps is a very left brain dominated persona.  I was always drawn to analytical work during my life.  Originally I believed that I just didn’t know how to relate to people- or more immediately know what to say to them after hello. I was long convinced that people (or specifically me) were born with a personality and that you couldn’t change it.  Fortunately I gradually discovered that I had more potential to be relatable.  My current personality may not be as charismatic as Bill Clinton but I’m working on it.

Over the years I developed a sarcastic edge which with my wife’s guidance I have managed to hobble.  I always thought that sarcasm (kidding) was just fun.  My wife assures me that it is not and that I have absolutely no sense of humor.  Lately, people on the web have told me that I have a dry sense of humor.  I find that hard to believe but I also know that I can learn anything I choose.  So among my endeavors, I am trying to hone my funny bone.  One part of that dimension of my life, is another blog I contribute to  called Cantankerous Old Coots. While Ralph Carlson Blog panders to my left brain analyzing and organizing information in logical bites, Cantankerous Old Coots is a place to let my right brain play.

I fell into this right brain-left brain blogging quite by a fluke.  It’s interesting how unlikely circumstances provide the opportunities you need quite unexpectedly.   So while I have been concentrating on Lifestyle Design with an orientation toward older people, I have been venting my observations and frustrations with modern life over at Cantankerous Old Coots for just over a year.  Currently there are three Coots and our aim is to help everyone develop their own version of cantankerosity.  Interestingly, COC is much more read than RCB.  I suspect that there is a message there but it may not resonate with my left brain dominated thinking.

Today, instead of another preachy lesson, I thought I would expose RCB readers to my right brain- and my co-conspirators at COC .  The best orientation is my first post which I wrote as the Cantankerous Old Coots Manifesto to set the tone for me and our readers going forward.  It has served us well, if at times we suffer from an all too human failure to live up to our own expectations.  We followed up with a series of Coots Lessons to help the cantankerosity-impaired unlease their own ability to call a spade a spade in this mealy-mouthed modern world.

So today, if you want to see what my right brain can do, take a look at Cantankerous Old Coots and if you life it poke around.  We’ve put up a lot of posts over the past year.  And let me know which half of my brain I should work the most.

{ 8 comments… add one }
  • PurpleShoutOut May 12, 2011, 5:51 am

    first i think it’s great that your wife can tell you that…and for the most part i think it is what it is. you are who you are and should be who you feel most comfortable in. i love this post. it should show people how the other half lives. thanks Ralph

    • Ralph May 12, 2011, 6:44 am

      Purple Shout Out,
      Believe me it wasn’t easy for me to face the truth and even harder to change. In the end, I decided that living alone wasn’t great.

  • Janette May 12, 2011, 7:34 am

    That was a fun visit! Thanks!
    Janette’s last Blog Post ..Communication

    • Ralph May 12, 2011, 7:43 am

      Janette,
      Glad you enjoyed it.

  • Hansi May 13, 2011, 5:21 am

    What would really be funny and hone that bone, would be if ya hobbled the wife and let the sarcasm rip. As I recall, like my wife, yours doesn’t read your blogs so why not. Be sure and take loads of pictures of the hobbling 🙂
    Hansi’s last Blog Post ..More Fornicating With The Stars

  • charlie macknee May 13, 2011, 1:29 pm

    Hey Ralph,

    First time here, prob not last!

    The first sentence you wrote: “One of my personal handicaps is a very left brain dominated persona.”

    I have been influenced by and working on this issue, both in terms of my personal 20th/21st century mind AND the COLLECTIVE mind of MEN in general since the so-called “Renaissance” and the birth of what we call “science”…a very left-brain activity.

    For me, it is quite clear that we have only been using half our brain/mind (if that much) since the men of the West of the world began to dominate the rest of the world.

    We better recognize this and change things soon or there won’t BE any more world!

    • Ralph May 13, 2011, 2:39 pm

      Charles. Is it really that bad?

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