Telling the Truth

Orchid Display at Longwood Gardens

Dear Dad,
Do you remember the lilac bush right next to our back porch? I checked it out this morning while I was eating breakfast. It has beautiful pink buds on its branches, and fringy flower buds emerging at the ends. I haven’t seen any crocus yet. David took this photo in May 2012. I thought it might bring back memories of our past visits to Longwood Gardens.

Not to rush, but my main topic today is YOU! I want to tell you more about ISTJs, because I’m 99.9% certain that’s your personality type. Similar to mine (INFJ), yet often worlds apart.

Here’s a reminder of what your letters mean:

• I = Introverted (focuses on inner world of ideas and impressions)
• S = Sensing (focuses on the present and on concrete information gained from senses)
• T = Thinking (tends to base decisions primarily on logic and on objective analysis of cause and effect)
• J = Judging (tends to like a planned and organized approach to life and prefer to have things settled)

Here’s the short description of what ISTJs are like:

Quiet, serious, earn success by thoroughness and dependability. Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible. Decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of distractions. Take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized—their work, their home, their life. Value traditions and loyalty. (from Meyers Briggs Personality Profile material)

And here’s a bit of data (which you should like):

• ISTJs are the third most common type, and the most common type among men.
• In the general population, 12% are ISTJs. 16% of all men are ISTJs; 7% of all women are ISTJs.
• Famous ISTJs include Queen Elizabeth II, Harry Truman, Queen Victoria and J.D. Rockefeller.

The short description above rings true to you. I don’t know whether you earned success or not. I think you would say that’s up to God to decide. I think you felt like a failure when it came to me. Nonetheless, the description of how you went about things rings true. Your sense of pleasure was, I’m guessing, limited, because things were never quite orderly enough for you.

When I visited, you often apologized about how disorganized things were. Your front porch garden, your workshop out back, your desk. Things seemed to be overwhelming you. Getting rid of things was difficult: clothing, books, magazines, torn-out articles on gardening and farming, and hundreds of used bolts, screws and nails that might come in handy someday.

After studying several pages of data about ISTJs, I came to an unexpected conclusion. I’m not sure you were in the best profession for your personality type. You don’t put much store by what the experts think. But I can’t shake this thought. Being a pastor didn’t seem (to me) to sit well with you. You took it seriously and seemed to give it all you had to give. But being a pastor is about relationships, not just about preaching.

In fact, I’ll push a little harder on this one. You seemed most happy and engaged when you worked in the yard or were helping organize a team to get a task done anywhere. Just think about when you managed the warehouse crew for that large department store. The men liked working with you, and you took pride in your work.

For whatever it’s worth, I think you would have made a cracker-jack landscape manager, and perhaps a good farmer or rancher. I’m looking at a list of top career choices by ISTJs. Nowhere do I find anything remotely related to pastoral work. Except the pastoral work that’s done outside with sheep and cattle.

Indeed, many of your sermon illustrations were about animals you had known. And then there was your family of plants from all over the place. I remember how much you enjoyed staying up all hours to photograph the magic moment when one of your rare plants bloomed.

Here’s my point. I’m finally getting to know you from the inside out. I may not have all the facts straight, but I’m pretty sure I’m on the right track. Why? Because I’m a good INFJ! That’s why.

Love and a hug,
Elouise

© Elouise Renich Fraser, 24 February 2015
Photo credit: DAFraser, May 2012
Orchid Display in the Longwood Gardens Conservatory