A young woman I know is co-leader of a club that supports sexual minorities. Which, right off the bat, is a cool thing to be doing. It’s a great group–active, compassionate, inclusive. You don’t have to identify with a nontraditional orientation to belong, but if you do, you’ll be respected. Good stuff.
What prompts this writing isn’t the existence of this club, but a meeting I happened to sit in on, back in October. This meeting had an unusual number of visitors sitting in, which could be awkward. As a way of getting things started and making everyone more comfortable, the club leaders invited everyone present to introduce themselves and state “their talent.”
But, wait, you say. Ack. That actually sounds intimidating. What if you don’t know your talent? What if your talent isn’t good enough? (Does it have to be a Gay-Lesbian-Bi-Transgendered-Straight talent? I don’t even know what that would be.)
Our young woman started things off. ”My talent is eating Ben and Jerry’s.”
“My talent is being British.”
“My talent is making ugly hats look cute.”
“My talent is knowing all ____’s secrets.”
“My talent is knowing when not to say anything.”
The talents worked their way around the room. My talent? I thought about my knacks, for design work, for poetry. I thought about the great gifts of my life: splendid children, a happy marriage. No, don’t say that. Too smug, too much information, so not-needed, so tempting to the jealous gods. Tlu, tlu, tlu.
My turn. I said, ”My talent is having really fun sneakers that are fuzzy inside.” And I took one off to show them that, indeed, my Tretorns are fleece-lined.
“Awesome.” someone says. Yeah. And not the least bit intimidating.
What’s your talent? Comments are open.
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My talent is thinking up perfectly witty retorts… three days later.
Good to see you here, Kelly!
I totally think up the best things to say…. later.
-LF
Lovely question, and even lovelier answers!
My talent is seeing people’s inner essence and bowing to it.
Lovely to see you here!
Seeing people’s inner essence is both a talent and a gift.
My talent is wearing outrageous clothing and getting away with it.
Hi, Joely! Outrageous is good. So is comfy-but-unfashionable. I have this notion of a utopian society where the dress code is flannel pajamas.
My talent is sleeping on another planet. (Earth usually goes *poof!* when I fall asleep…)
HI, Tzaddi. Ooh, space-travel sleep sounds cool. : )
My talent is being able to name all the stray, soon to be our adopted, cats really great names. Caponee (with a long ee at the end, for Al Capone), Miss Caponee for his sister, Capachinee (another long ee at the end) for our cat that’s colored just like a latte, Foxy (he survived the rabid fox) and his sister Frisky. And the best of all, Shimee (you got it, another long ee at the end) for the neighboring community (called Shima) that he trekked across the desert from to come back to us way before he was adopted. Enough cats, though, I think I’ve run out of names.
My talent is being able to name all the stray, soon to be adopted, cats really great names.
p.s.this is the shortened version. I initially left a comment that included all those great names but seems I lost it when I hit submit.
Yael — nope, you didn’t lose it, there was just a posting delay since it was your first comment. And those are great names!
My talent is for finding things to do, other than those things that I need to do.
A talent I know I share!