Do you get a chance to talk about your special interests?

Amazing, the poetry of it. I’m glad you  took the time to write that, Coffee Guy. The opposite of an endurance to read. Actually, endurance (the more positive sense) is a key part of what you get out of wood. And trees. Elegance and endurance intertwined. The dignified patience of an acorn becoming an oak, an oak becoming a mast, a mast becoming a ring. It’s beautiful and I suppose other true carpenters would have that in their souls. They may surprise you! Or… just talk about what’s your favourite tool or whatever. Not that that’s a boring g question necessarily. Where am I going with this? No idea. Anyway, thanks for this thread too! 

Thanks for the tyre info. 

Luftmentsch said:

John le Carré’s George Smiley novels

For some reason, I haven't yet read the books; instead I've watched both TTSS's, Smiley's People and a very moving tv production of A Perfect Spy.

Talking of Factoids, you know the way Steve Wright’s done millions of those of the years? And even though I didn’t listen often I’d still hear several a year? (Actually why would you know that second bit). Anyway, despite the fact that I must have heard hundreds of them, only one has been retained with permanence in my brain. I’ve no idea why this particular one: a car tyre is a single molecule, just covering a massive area. Maybe it’s because I was driving when he said it and it made me feel weird. Borne aloft on four individual molecules 

What a beautiful post.

It’s been very interesting to read through all of your responses here.

Firstly, I would like to apologise for not replying to each of you separately. I hope to at some point in the next few days where possible. I had a very long day at work and have only got round to reading your replies now. I am overwhelmed by the sheer number of replies, in a good way, but also, I wasn’t quite expecting to come back to so many! It really is appreciated though.

I hope that my initial post didn’t come across as a moan, I wasn’t really intending it to. Rather, it was a genuine question, as I hope to learn of people’s individual experiences on the matter.

I have found myself speaking less of my interests generally over the years, mainly due to the reasons I outlined above. I suppose I’d quite like that to change, but wasn’t sure how  to implement a change that would work in a conscientious way for both myself and the people I am conversing with.

I have found that I have never really had the confidence to join online groups, outside of this place that is, but also, I often doubt myself and get a feeling that I will be ‘rumbled for being an imposter’ by more knowledgeable individuals within those groups.

I also have to recognise that some of the things I enjoy about my special interests are quite difficult to communicate.

Take for example my interest in wood, I have a real interest in the patterns that emerge from wood grain when a finish is applied. The colour change is incredible, but so is the knowledge that it is natural growth over a significant time that created such beautiful patterns in the first place.

I love the grain of oak in particular, so much so that my wedding ring has an oak band made from an old Cornish tall ship running though it. The historic aspect of this is truly wonderful to me, as is the appearance and feel of it.

I also made myself a solid oak ring that I wear, but also use for stimming. The feel of it is incredible because I made it so smooth, hence the sensory satisfaction and soothing qualities of it, but the patterns and deep rich colours are so intriguing and inspiring. Plus, I made it myself which gives me a sense of pride.

Oak reminds me of home and time spent looking at and being near a famous oak tree, at least famous in my original neck of the woods anyway. If you’ll excuse the pun.  Oak trees are wonderful to look at too. I love how old and established they can become, whilst remaining relatively small in stature. They almost seem to grow wider rather than taller. Their gnarled and interwoven branches remind me of exploring tangents of thought, each connecting or crossing others and becoming a complex network of wonder. Oak leaves are an odd shape, but like the tree themselves, are quite the thing of beauty.

I just don’t get the impression that an online carpentry group would be the place to vocalise these thoughts. Perhaps this is too niche and I wonder if this side of my interest is  more relatable in an environment such as this. I hope this small example goes some way to demonstrate the worries I have about this, but then again, perhaps I am judging something before I’ve tried it and therefore I’m not giving it the credit it could in fact deserve.

I’m going to stop there for now, as I think I may currently be doing precisely what I was writing about in the first place and oversharing without checking whether or not people wanted to ‘hear’ it. If you made it through my ramble about about oak, you deserve a medal!

A wooden one… obviously…

Unknown said:

nuggets we can learn from each other (ie useless facts which I actually enjoy to learn)

I do like a factoid! I kind of collect them, just any little interesting thing on almost any subject, the more obscure the better.

I have liked reading this thread. Although there are some things which I don't think I would find interesting at all, what I am getting is the depth of which people like their interests. I have no idea about grain patterns in trees but that sounds cool and think there are lots of nuggets we can learn from each other (ie useless facts which I actually enjoy to learn). It'd be so lovely to meet in a group find stuff out and everyone sounds interesting even if we don't share the same interests. Or to give a presentation about our interests to others.

My interests are mostly quite........"heavy" yet at the same time some are "delicate" so I don't usually bother. I can sometimes get a bit out of open minded people but not nearly as much as I'd like. I try really hard not to go on if I get started. I engage on here - autism must be one of my interests. I like the discussions about identity etc.

mine never knows when to shut up

All the time.  

Because my main interest at the moment is autism and I work in a school with autistic children so I get to talk about how it plays out a lot.  And I even get paid to take autism training classes-  at the last one I explained to the course leader why person fear language is a problem and she said it was very helpful.

As a child, only my other geeky friends like Doctor Who. The other kids used to tease me about it. I got in the habit of not talking about it. At university, I was part of the university Doctor Who Society and spoke to people there. When I left university, I was involved with online fandom for a while, but in recent years I’ve drifted away, partly through not liking the recent episodes and more from struggling to find an online community with the right level of activity (not too much or too little). Plus these days I’m a lot more interested in the original series than the twenty-first century version and I don’t know where I will find people who accept that. I’ve got my wife interested in Doctor Who and she will talk about it to me.

I agree with Shardovan about the difficulty of finding people interested in other “niche” classic science fiction. Not many Sapphire and Steel or Quatermass fans out there. I suspect the same is true about John le Carré’s George Smiley novels, although I haven’t really looked.

I’m not sure if Judaism counts as a special interest for me, but it is hard finding people wanting to talk about it at an intellectual level I feel comfortable with and focusing on areas that interest me. Again, I talk with my wife. And no one shares my intense interest in the teachings of the Kotzker Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, 1787-1859).

I’m not sure that I really “need” to talk about these interests though. I tend to get very shy about talking about any of them unless I’m with someone who shares my degree of interest or passion. I’m embarrassed to talk about things other people aren’t interested in or where my knowledge is much greater than theirs, and I’m too shy to talk to people whose knowledge is much greater than mine unless it’s a formal teaching situation.

Yes, those are so impressive!

Omg wow that sounds impressive! I would love to go and see that one day. I've got a Lego Titanic but it's not as awesome as that! I went to a Lego store in London with my mum, once, but it was so busy I had sensory overload and a meltdown, but I remember the store was very big and very impressive. Lots of detailed Lego everywhere.

Thank you so much - and no don't worry, it wasn't insensitive at all, it gives me hope it will get better and back to how it used to be, so thank you :) x

Me too, I'd love to be able to sing! I've tried, before my throat got bad, and I couldn't do it very well lol. Not a nice sound.

I hope I haven't been insensitive there. Maybe you meant permanently?

Sorry to hear about your health issues. Hopefully you'll be talking again sooner than later. 

Those are all really cool interests. Combining two of them... someone sent me a picture the other day from inside the Lego store near them. There was a big glass case with the sinking Titanic made out of lego and already split into three sections across a lego sea. Off to the side were various Lego people drowning. It was on a big plinth otherwise depicting smiling/laughing lego characters from other things. A touch incongrous and in questionable taste. But it was impressive too

Thank you Luna, that's very kind of you to say.

There are many talents other people have that I often wish I had, such as the ability to sing in tune.