How hard do you have work to have a Beautiful Life, to Attend to the Forgotten, and to Be Unique? One fictional heroine and one documentary on a Race Relations Activist will help us better understand more fully the Type Fours' Quest to be themselves and to help others be themselves too.
"Do I 'look' like I'm from Sacramento?" Christine (prefers the title "Ladybird") asks her mother, hoping for a unique or different identity and image.
"Uhm, you 'are' from Sacramento," her mother replies...
4s are called The Romantic bc they are not always grounded in reality, but are sculpting an inner reality and are sometimes shocked when reality hits, like Ladybird. Rachael has mixed motives in attempting to make her inner world match the outer, but with very different results. The broader conversations on "identity" will be an interesting addition to our sessions this year!
"Do I 'look' like I'm from Sacramento?" Christine (prefers the title "Ladybird") asks her mother, hoping for a unique or different identity and image.
"Uhm, you 'are' from Sacramento," her mother replies...
4s are called The Romantic bc they are not always grounded in reality, but are sculpting an inner reality and are sometimes shocked when reality hits, like Ladybird. Rachael has mixed motives in attempting to make her inner world match the outer, but with very different results. The broader conversations on "identity" will be an interesting addition to our sessions this year!
Ladybird: **Spoiler Alert!** Choose when you want to read these!
Opening line from movie: “Anyone who talks about hedonism in California has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento.” -Joan Didion (btw: unsure if Didion was a Four or a Five but she totally embodies the emotional and intellectual arrogance found in those types. Great artist, a bit self-absorbed, bitter and classist at times…)
“Do you think I look like I’m from Sacramento?”
“You *are* from Sacramento.”
“I wish I could live through *something*…”
Insisting on her name being Ladybird, dreaming of a different life back east... Fours want to be unique and special, different than others; crafting an inner world that keeps them from a world they believe is ugly. Sacramento (for now) and the family and school!
Fours are called the romantic not because they are better at love and relationship, but because they are not grounded in reality. They are crafting/sculpting a reality that is not always true, but it is dramatic. Think: Don Quixote!
Ladybird abandons her friends and drama group to pursue a boyfriend Kyle through using the rich girl she **envies** to get close to him. She lies about where she lives and does impression management (3 wing). After her hurt that her first boyfriend is gay, she instantly has a big heart for him as he cries worrying that his life is going to be bad and thinks of how to tell his parents...
That the director remembered to include Ash Wednesday in the movie: You are dust and to dust you will return is an example of HOLY ORIGIN, THE HOLY IDEA ATTRIBUTED TO FOUR. We are all made of the same stuff, and in that way we belong and are not unique.
The age of LadyBird (senior year) is Fourish for us all: we are discontented, horny, unformed, uninformed, unaware of a lot, at risk of bad impressions, unsure of our own identity, wishing to be someone who lives through something, scared we are being limited by our family/surroundings, etc.
After sex with Kyle, she refers to an old picture of him and current life as “cut to now…” he doesn’t understand but she is speaking in IMAGE metaphor, as if life is a drama, a movie, a book, a story. “Cut to now” make life a changeable movie scene. She has just had sex (miserably poor) and begins speaking of it to him as mutual “deflowering”... Life for Fours must be described metaphorically because they want it to be more beautiful than it is.
She made up in her head that Kyle was a virgin and he was not; her *disappointment* and *anger* at reality shows here and is a repeating theme for Fours: The Romantic is called the Romantic not because they are good at relationships but because they are sculpting an inner reality that they prefer over outer reality.
“Why are you upset?” *I just wanted it to be special.* “You are going to have so much unspecial sex in your life.”
The nun mentions that LadyBird’s essay speaks with such love about Sacramento, and LadyBird says no, she just pays attention. And the nun says don’t you think they’re the same thing: love and attention
Very moving moment... Asking her mom: Do you like me? What if this is the best version?
She apologizes to her mother: I’m so sorry I was ungrateful, I’m so sorry I wanted more.
She wants to tell her mom at the end of the movie: I loved Sacramento, and all those things I am familiar with, I love you, thank you (2 Gratitude)
I LOVE Ladybird. And I love Laurie Metcalf’s portrayal of what is probably a Six mother (I think she is a Six in real life, and it reflects in many of her roles.)
+++ Our heroine Type 4 Ladybird I like to pair with tragic Blue Jasmine by Woody Allen ++++ but this year we're looking at Rachel Dolezal for what another four does in the search to support the forgotten and the search to be unique.
Opening line from movie: “Anyone who talks about hedonism in California has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento.” -Joan Didion (btw: unsure if Didion was a Four or a Five but she totally embodies the emotional and intellectual arrogance found in those types. Great artist, a bit self-absorbed, bitter and classist at times…)
“Do you think I look like I’m from Sacramento?”
“You *are* from Sacramento.”
“I wish I could live through *something*…”
Insisting on her name being Ladybird, dreaming of a different life back east... Fours want to be unique and special, different than others; crafting an inner world that keeps them from a world they believe is ugly. Sacramento (for now) and the family and school!
Fours are called the romantic not because they are better at love and relationship, but because they are not grounded in reality. They are crafting/sculpting a reality that is not always true, but it is dramatic. Think: Don Quixote!
Ladybird abandons her friends and drama group to pursue a boyfriend Kyle through using the rich girl she **envies** to get close to him. She lies about where she lives and does impression management (3 wing). After her hurt that her first boyfriend is gay, she instantly has a big heart for him as he cries worrying that his life is going to be bad and thinks of how to tell his parents...
That the director remembered to include Ash Wednesday in the movie: You are dust and to dust you will return is an example of HOLY ORIGIN, THE HOLY IDEA ATTRIBUTED TO FOUR. We are all made of the same stuff, and in that way we belong and are not unique.
The age of LadyBird (senior year) is Fourish for us all: we are discontented, horny, unformed, uninformed, unaware of a lot, at risk of bad impressions, unsure of our own identity, wishing to be someone who lives through something, scared we are being limited by our family/surroundings, etc.
After sex with Kyle, she refers to an old picture of him and current life as “cut to now…” he doesn’t understand but she is speaking in IMAGE metaphor, as if life is a drama, a movie, a book, a story. “Cut to now” make life a changeable movie scene. She has just had sex (miserably poor) and begins speaking of it to him as mutual “deflowering”... Life for Fours must be described metaphorically because they want it to be more beautiful than it is.
She made up in her head that Kyle was a virgin and he was not; her *disappointment* and *anger* at reality shows here and is a repeating theme for Fours: The Romantic is called the Romantic not because they are good at relationships but because they are sculpting an inner reality that they prefer over outer reality.
“Why are you upset?” *I just wanted it to be special.* “You are going to have so much unspecial sex in your life.”
The nun mentions that LadyBird’s essay speaks with such love about Sacramento, and LadyBird says no, she just pays attention. And the nun says don’t you think they’re the same thing: love and attention
Very moving moment... Asking her mom: Do you like me? What if this is the best version?
She apologizes to her mother: I’m so sorry I was ungrateful, I’m so sorry I wanted more.
She wants to tell her mom at the end of the movie: I loved Sacramento, and all those things I am familiar with, I love you, thank you (2 Gratitude)
I LOVE Ladybird. And I love Laurie Metcalf’s portrayal of what is probably a Six mother (I think she is a Six in real life, and it reflects in many of her roles.)
+++ Our heroine Type 4 Ladybird I like to pair with tragic Blue Jasmine by Woody Allen ++++ but this year we're looking at Rachel Dolezal for what another four does in the search to support the forgotten and the search to be unique.
- How did you handle your identity formation?
- What went well? What did not go so well?
- How have you gone about getting attention in life?
- What role does envy play in your life?
- How have you dealt with leaving old environs to answer your call to be something new?
- What are your responses to the high and low sides of Type Four and Identity Types?
description_type_four_the_romantic.pdf |
wagner_type_four.pdf |