The INFP ...as rockstar?

According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator I'm an INFP.  (Find out what type you are with this quick and painless version.)

That's Introverted, iNtuition, Feeling, Perceiving.

To give you a sketch, here are some bits of descriptions around the web that I especially identify with:

present a calm and serene face to the world, and can seem shy, even distant around others

Yes.  I'm not so much a fan of this one because distance is the exact opposite of what I believe in.

their great passion is to heal the conflicts that trouble individuals, or that divide groups, and thus to bring wholeness or health to themselves, their loved ones, and their community

Exactly.

INFPs never seem to lose their sense of wonder. One might say they see life through rose-colored glasses. It's as though they live at the edge of a looking-glassworld where mundane objects come to life, where flora and fauna take on near-human qualities.  

Told you I talk to trees.

we must understand their idealism as almost boundless

which probably relates in some way to 

a constant desire to be on a meaningful path  

hence the near-constant anguish over the totally meaningless job and, um... possible overcompensation in the form of the TBH mission?

have a gift for interpreting stories, as well as for creating them, and thus often write in lyric, poetic fashion

I recently scoffed (internally, of course) at someone who told me not to use "flowery adjectives" and I foster a slow-burning hatred for the Boston University fiction program because they include the following note to applicants: "A hint: those who write in flowery prose or overly-subjectively–that is, about dreams, memories, thoughts, states of mind–or who dwell obsessively on sensitive children may find themselves at a disadvantage."  Look, clean language is great, fiction isn't memoir, and obsession is unhealthy, but still.  Be nice!  Mean writers are the worst kind of meanie; their job is to facilitate empathy between reader and character!  How can you do that if you can't actually experience empathy yourself?

flexible and laid-back, until one of their values is violated. In the face of their value system being threatened, INFPs can become aggressive defenders, fighting passionately for their cause

which, believe me, doesn't pair very well with

awkward and uncomfortable with expressing themselves verbally

because I can't ever seem to sputter out a reasonable defense for whatever I'm aggressively defending.  If not for 

a wonderful ability to define and express what they're feeling on paper

I'd probably be sunk.

They notice problems in a work group before anyone else.  It doesn't help to tell them that they are imagining things.

I think all of my bandmates can attest to the latter, at least.  Some more than others.  ::ahem::

daydreams about people to maintain a sense of closeness

Wait... you don't? 

  

and prone to dreaming about a rescuer

 

::dreamy sigh::

So.  Good jobs for INFPs include writer, artist, humanities professor, web designer, philosopher, archaeologist, psychologist, counselor, social worker.

Musician is listed in some places, along with songwriter, which makes sense.  (Yay lyrics!)  But I wonder how many successful rockstars are INFPs.  The only singer I could find listed among famous INFPs is Neil Diamond (I knew there was a reason I love him).  But Neil was never in a band-band, was he?  Band = group work with a lot of complex emotions involved...  Rock = not always, shall we say, the kindest of genres...  Fronting a band = the opposite of reserved...  

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, exactly, just that... no matter how much I love and believe in my band (and I do), no matter how much I love and believe in the Boston rock scene (and I do), my personality is such that there truly are nights I would just as soon stay home and read.  Some days I just long to do the chick with a guitar thing and write the most flowery folky lyrics about bittersweet love you can imagine to strange progressions of minor and seven chords with no one around to get their back up over it.

And some days, I just wanna live here.

P.S.  From here:


INFP: The Idealist
The INFP is a dreamy, imaginitive, idealist, capable of finding the good in anything or anyone, even something as foul as Newark, New Jersey. INFPs are sometimes dangerous to the well-being of society as a whole, as they are prone to adopting subversive and destructive ideologies like "The world should be fair," "People should treat one another well," and "You know, 'Friends' is a really, really stupid television show."


These irrational thought patterns may sometimes cause INFPs to run off and join the circus, the Resistance, or the Rebellion, where they tend to do well in any position requiring excellent hand-eye coordination or mastery of the Force.


COMPATIBILITY: INFPs and ISTJs generally exhibit a natural predator/prey relationship, which, though it might appear harsh and cruel from the outside, is all part of the natural cycle of life. In fact, were it not for the predation of the ISTJ, the population of INFPs would soon grow to unsustainable levels, overwhelming the ability of their ecological niche to support them.


Famous idealists include that girl in your sixth-grade homeroom who got the teacher fired for saying that girls aren't good at math; that guy in the cubicle next to yours who got the manager fired for saying that women don't make good employees; and Anais Nin.