Intensity has gotten a bad rap.
I for one believe this is due to the Latin origins of the word. The
Global Home-Book of Etymology defines ‘intense’ as:
the state of ‘tense’ that you are ‘in’ – as in ancient Sumeria
when
Ronclad
the Great entombed his daughter in gold to punish her for
her beauty.
(It distracted Ronclad’s warriors.)
Ronclad said to
her,
‘Vrap Molkik Stempkins Bort!” which means, “I cast you unto
a
golden tomb,” which, by 112 AD, came to mean, “inside tension.”
Latin:
tensorium intesticles: to be bound within that which you
may
never escape. See Egyptian
Mummification, Volume 4.
By the
21st Century, the word had evolved to mean “productive” and
“industrious” (which is why Latin and
etymology remain under-enrolled at institutions of higher tuition).
Indeed,
modern intense people from industrialized nations often become inventors or
excruciatingly rich. They are driven to resolve the un-resolvable, to get to
the bottom of everything, to “find a better way.”
In
under-developed countries, they squat over straw mats for days picking mites
from hooves of llamas.
People
who are not intense are lazy. That
sounds intense to say, but it can be illustrated.
Take,
for instance, unemployment. An
intense person will be incensed by losing her job. Unemployment is one of the worst states of tension one can
be bound within. It causes
poverty, world hunger, pedestrians, street mimes, telemarketing, impotence and
death.
Beyond
that, intense people cannot stand having nothing to do. They will email –within
an hour of receiving their pink slip – 2,000 resumes to unsuspecting employers
worldwide and they will land a job by sundown. It doesn’t matter what the job is, and when the glamour of
ferret-skinning or selling blood to the Red Cross fades, more intense
employment will be found. Like
blending energy-smoothies for yoga students you teach in your unfinished
basement.
Jobless
people who aren’t intense amaze
intense folks by not dying. They sorta hang around reading a lot, picking at
bills and watching movies. For a
lark, they circle want ads then snail-mail typo-infested resumes to no one in
particular … and when the spirit moves them, they land a job. Like initiating hostile takeovers on
helpless industrial corporations.
People
who are not intense look at intense people and sniff, “You should RELAX!” or,
“You are OBSESSED!”
Which is
silly.
Intense
people can only relax when they hold their breath, concentrate and push – which
is pretty exhausting for people who should be busy saving the earth.
And there is a big difference between being intense and being obsessed.
Obsession is defined in the Family Almanac Word Book as “intensity gone bad. (See
Perimenopause, pg. 262.)”
Technically, intense people are not obsessed. They are “focused.” This is good
for swat teams, brain surgeons and deactivating nuclear bombs.
It is
bad for relationships, ironing rayon and microwave snacks. (Once I actually weaponized a Ham and
Cheese Hot Pocket.)
Suppose,
for example, a great song comes on the radio. Un-intense people really enjoy it and sing along. But intense people “focus” on the song,
then lunge for volume-control to dial-up ‘Mega Blast’ until the woofers rocket
out of the speakers, splitting the sound barrier and time-traveling through a
wall.
Focus: the concentration necessary to enjoy things 'til they break.
Several years ago I wrote an
article about intensity only I didn’t know it. I had defined emotional extremists as people who dance
the fine line between perception and paranoia, commitment and fixation,
creative license and a lawsuit.
Intensity, when it reaches a state of art, is the ability not to cross
the line.
Only
then may it be celebrated as a vehicle to excellence and overachievement.
I mean,
without intensity, the world might accept substandard conditions like, “This
can’t be repaired,” “That’s too
much frosting,” “I’m not aroused
now,” and “No.”
Indeed, as I write this, the
standard for “average” is being raised to “nearly good.”
Soon
mediocrity will be rendered extinct and may be placed next to those tensorium
intesticles that took out Ronclad’s daughter.
“Intense: to boldly go where no man has gone
before – even if that is
inside gold tombs in which pretty women
are buried alive. See Tomb
#9: Given,
C.; Under-employed English Teacher.”