Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and other stuff: Me and Professor X

If you know me hardly at all, you have probably noticed that in the last few days I have been obsessed, super duper, 24/7, make-your-friends-and-family-hate-you obsessed with a new personality/sense of life kind of system loosely based on Hogwarts Houses. Keep reading, and by the end, you will know me and my dear Professor X so much better!

Check out the whole thing at sortinghatchats.tumblr.com.

Quick summary of the overall thing: Everyone has a primary house that describes why you do what you do, your motivations. Everyone has a secondary house that describes how you do what you do, the tools you used. Some people have models as a part of their primary or secondary classification, meaning that they really understand and take on as a part of them a second house. Some people are burned, meaning that something happened in their life to make them lose confidence in their way of being.

I won't tell you what all the houses mean: you'll have to go read the info, but I will explain mine. I want to do this because I have been thinking so much about how these new descriptors can help me identify better what I am, what I want to be, and what I need to learn to be it.

The short summary is that I am a Ravenclaw modeling a Hufflepuff as my primary. My secondary is probably Hufflepuff, but if so, I model Slytherin and Ravenclaw super well.

Here's what it means:

I am a Ravenclaw primary, so I love systems. I constantly test all the things to fit them into my model of how the world works. As I take in new data and understand more, I amend, throw out, or expand my system. Why would I do anything? Because it makes sense.

The things that I have learned makes sense, the meaning and structure that I have made and tested and retested and decided is right (all Ravenclaw style) is the ideals of Hufflepuff. So that's why I model Hufflepuff. For a Hufflepuff primary, people are important, not just my people, but people in general. The world should be better and people should be happier, and it's my responsibility. That's the system that makes sense to me, so I model it. If I got new data that showed me that isn't true, I wouldn't feel betrayed by a bad world, like a pure Hufflepuff primary, I would just amend the system and move on.

My secondaries (the tools I use) are Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. As a good Hufflepuff secondary, I just keep working hard, showing up, doing what needs done. I also use love and affection and connections between people and community building. As a good Slytherin, I use adaptability, social skills, charm, and manipulation of settings and groups to achieve my goals. As a good Ravenclaw, I collect information, data, research, facts and use logic and analysis to do what I do. I'm unsure which of those is most fundamental, but in a pinch, I would probably try to love everybody into happiness and success, so maybe Hufflepuff.

The system fascinates me in general because it allows change and conscious choice in the realm of personality and sense of life. Specifically, I am fascinated for two reasons. 1. I really love to poke at systems with a stick, and I especially love it when the hold up under the poking. 2. I think this has given me a way to describe the mission of my life.

My Ravenclaw primary means that I have a strong need to find out what is true about the world. That drives me to constant seek out new ideas and systems and thoughts and knowledge and subject matter. I am on an almost constant search through all the accumulated thoughts of humanity to find what belongs in my system.

My adopted Hufflepuff primary system means that I want to make the world better for people, to make them safe and happy and healthy, with peace and autonomy and meaningful lives as a part of their communities. Thank heavens for Buddhism, which as a part of my system, has taught me that humans can only influence the world for the better when they begin with themselves, their families, their friends, their workplaces, their lives. So in order to save all the people of the world, I start by saving the people in my sphere.

I am motivated by these primaries to do two things: to learn to love and connect to individual people better and to scale up, to be able to include more and more people within my sphere. So I want to be better at loving the people I have, and I want to be able to love more people. And the thing that will make me able to do this is research and poking and thinking. I'll think my way into loving so many freaking people!

My secondaries are the tools I use, and I like to have a million and four tools in my kit. I'm good at the three I have (though I am always sharpening), so Gryffindor is the place where the work happens for me. A Gryffindor secondary confronts things head on with boldness and energy, rushing straight into the fray, telling it like it is, inspiring people with their authenticity and solving problems directly. That's hard for me because I am relatively conflict averse, and I've never met a problem I couldn't finesse and enter through the side door. But boldness is a tool I want because every tool is a tool I want. I've had some success with dealing with conflict directly and openly, and I plan to keep on until I can't remember that Gryffindor secondary was ever hard. I'll get better at it by research and data (Ravenclaw), hard diligent work and self-compassion (Hufflepuff), and adaptability and thinking on my feet (Slytherin).

And guess who I think is just like me? Professor Charles Xavier. He thinks about the problem of mutation and society and decides that people flourishing in a unified way is the ideal. (Ravenclaw primary modeling Hufflepuff) Then he goes out and basically loves and connects people at his school in order to save the world. He uses thinking and planning (Ravenclaw secondary), community building (Hufflepuff secondary), and people skills and adaptability (Slytherin secondary) to create a community of people who can make the world better and save everything.