However, Kidder’s depictions of Farmer’s personality portray him as a happy man. Perhaps the book will be of some help, if you indeed have not yet read it.
I’m quite certain that the vast majority of people who ever encountered me in meatspace would make the mistake of thinking that I am a happy person. I laugh, I smile, I go through all of the motions. I am upbeat and concerned with the wellbeing of others. I am patient to a fault, and nigh unto never show any signs of any kind of being foul-mannered or intemperate.
Those who know me when I am … myself—know a very different person. They are few.
This is still in line with Kidder’s depiction of Farmer. In one scene, Farmer has dinner with two close colleagues with whom he’s worked a long time. Kidder has been invited by Farmer, but compared to his usual, jovial self, Farmer blows up at one of his colleagues and beleaguers the colleague on how they are not serving the people who need them most (poor people) first. Kidder, shocked at how Farmer so blatantly torments and manipulates his colleague into capitulating to Farmer’s wishes, asks the other colleague whether this is normal. She responds, “You think that was bad? What he was doing to Jim was nothing. On a a scale of one to ten, that was about a five.”
Regardless, the book both educates and entertains; I recommend at least checking it out.
I’m quite certain that the vast majority of people who ever encountered me in meatspace would make the mistake of thinking that I am a happy person. I laugh, I smile, I go through all of the motions. I am upbeat and concerned with the wellbeing of others. I am patient to a fault, and nigh unto never show any signs of any kind of being foul-mannered or intemperate.
Those who know me when I am … myself—know a very different person. They are few.
This is still in line with Kidder’s depiction of Farmer. In one scene, Farmer has dinner with two close colleagues with whom he’s worked a long time. Kidder has been invited by Farmer, but compared to his usual, jovial self, Farmer blows up at one of his colleagues and beleaguers the colleague on how they are not serving the people who need them most (poor people) first. Kidder, shocked at how Farmer so blatantly torments and manipulates his colleague into capitulating to Farmer’s wishes, asks the other colleague whether this is normal. She responds, “You think that was bad? What he was doing to Jim was nothing. On a a scale of one to ten, that was about a five.”
Regardless, the book both educates and entertains; I recommend at least checking it out.