“Unless you know yourself, you cannot know others.”
A few years ago, our daughter Alona discovered the Enneagram.Enneagram is a model of human personality, which is principally used as a typology of nine interconnected personality types of human nature. (See the different enneagrams here.)
Alona excitedly called my wife Elfa to share her discovery. When the news reached me, I was not surprised. Not only did I know about it, but I also had a cassette tape set (remember those?) with the program. Since we were planning a family vacation to Hawaii, Elfa decided to transfer the tapes into CD’s and take them with us on the trip. During our drives from one beach to another, we listened to the description of each personality type and tried to identify which one belonged to us.
When it came to number 7, which sounded like my type, I vehemently denied it. (Apparently, it is one of the traits of number 7.) Seven is the perpetual child in a candy store, who wants everything at the same time. This is why I help tailor mortgage solutions for my clients, as well as write and photograph, and teach at the same time.
The reason I’ve chosen to write about this subject is that you have an opportunity to celebrate April 1st (April Fools Day) at the West Portal Library, with Beatrice Chestnut, author of a new book “The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge”. She will share some of her knowledge and expertise. April Fools Day was first mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Talesin 1392. You can get this book at the Public library.
I regularly visit the West Portal Branch Library. When I find out about a specific book I want to read, my first step is to check it out on Amazon and then I take a trip down the hill from our house on the weekend. If some books are not directly available in the San Francisco library branches, they can be ordered from other affiliated libraries and sent to your preferred location. There is always a friendly librarian who can help you.
Besides borrowing books from the library, you can learn a lot from different teachers. Melissa Riley (West Portal Library 415-355-2886) organizes lectures, which are very interesting. To find more, please contact her at[email protected].
Hope to see you on April 1st!
P.S.
There are different types of categories of people with Enneagrams. In Cuba, we met a lot of people who could be a good representative of one of the types of the Enneagram. You have to travel there to find out. Meanwhile, enjoy the images of children from my book Soy Cubano, I am Cuban. It is available as ane-book for $9.99 on BLURB or you may also purchase a hardcopy here. I am grateful to you, if you buy one, and send it as a gift to your friends.
DO NOT KEEP ME AS A SECRET.
SMILE AND PLEASE SHARE IT WITH A FRIEND