Victor and I having an argument about whether people work based on rational thinking or on emotional feeling:
me: I don’t “think”. I feel.
Victor: No, you just think that.
me: No, I feel that it’s a truism.
Victor: You really think so?
me: Nice try, Satan. I’m not falling for your trickery.
Victor: I think calling me Satan is a bit harsh.
me: Because you feel it’s an unfair comparison?
Victor: No. It’s because I think you’re insane and irrational.
me: “Irrational” is an emotional feeling. I think you just proved my point.
Victor: HA! You “think” so? You lose.
me: Dammit. I had a feeling I would.
You. Are. My. Favourite. Ever.
I feel your pain.
I have a lot of thoughtful feelings about this.
(Waits for someone to get all Myers-Briggs up in here.)
Ha! I feel, thinking, is overrated 🙂
I love that you called Victor Satan! Made my day!
All these feels are making my head hurt.
I think I feel a headache coming on.
I wonder if this is one of those “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” things. But with more taxidermied animals around as scenery.
It’s kinda sad ’cause “I feel like you just proved my point.” Would have worked just as well. 🙁 Better luck next argument
Damn semantics. They’ll get you every time.
You win. Don’t let Satan confuse you.
I *think* that your *feelings* have now been validated!
This sounds like an everyday conversation between my husband and me. Glad to know we’re not alone!
I am almost positive I’ve had an argument very similar to this one with my best friend.
I also lost.
I never think. I only feel. Drives my husband crazy.
Kick him in the shin and say…do you THINK that hurts?
I feel you.
I’m thinking that I feel nothing but love for you and your blog! How’s that for proving nothing? And here we prefer Lucifer.
Your conversations with Victor never fail to make me laugh.
There aren’t enough Christmas cookies in the world that could add up to how much I love thee, Jennifer Archibald Lawson.
I feel like Victor is over thinking this.
I often use the two interchangeably. But it strikes me that it’s a very different thing to say “I like the way you think” than it is to say, “I like the way you feel.” One of these could probably get a restraining order.
Right up there with Abbott and Costello, Martin and Lewis, and the Smothers Brothers.
Cue Boston: IT’S MORE THAN A FEELING (more than a feeling)….
This is me and my wife all the time.
HA! Boston? I was doing Queen. Beelzubub has a devil put aside for meeeeee…
Tell Victor that you think that he needs to talk about his feelings more. Or you feel like he needs to think before he speaks…?
This also made me think of Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura, saying, “Yes, SATAN?…oh, I’m sorry, sir. You sounded like someone else.”
So. Funny. –Thanks!
That argument makes me think of that smaltzy song Feelings. “Feelings, nothing more than feelings “.
Dear Krud,
Myers-Briggs here.
ENTJ.
I never feel.
Except that I suddenly feel that Victor is Satan.
I feel stabby.
Oh god no! It’s like my philosophy class all over again!
Ha! I broke up once with a guy who said to me, “I’m a Thinker, you’re a Feeler.” Ok, so it was true. But after that I both thought and felt that he was an asshole.
:::shaking fist in the air:::: Foiled AGAIN by English! bahh humbug
I so get this. Married to a lawyer. Daughter of a lawyer. Niece of a lawyer. Good friend of a lawyer. This IS my life– every fricking word and thought analyzed and challenged. Sometimes it’s not even worth saying anything, ‘ya know?
I feel he still did prove your point, though. So you won before you lost.
Both. Some people are more thinkers and some are more feelers.
It seems he usually wins. Must be why his name is Victor.
my husband loves to point out that i “feel too much” and i’m like, “i feel like kicking you in the balls.”
I fell like maybe you just let Victor think he won. . .
Thanks. Now I’m over-thinking my feelings.
True or false question posed to me the other day: “A hunch is based on factual information.”
It made me feel funny.
I feel like you people really get me.
A thinker once told me that it’s better to use “I feel…” Because it’s harder for someone to argue against feelings than it is thoughts so you’re more likely to win arguments … What you are thinking can be right or wrong but what you are feeling just is what it is.
So many feels in this post…and in the comments. I think it’s perfect. Of course that could just be a feeling.
Huh. Your hubby’s Satan, too? That horned devil is EVERYWHERE!
You guys are officially too quick-witted for me.
ESTJ here…
yes, I am an engineer. But the “E” means I’m not a quiet one. I guess? I actually posted about this topic:
http://psb1969.blogspot.com/2013/10/marvelous-magical-meg.html
Because my friend Meg is a total warm and fuzzy feeler and I? Am not. But we still love each other.
I feel that I don’t think enough.
HA HA HA! The entire made me THINK that you make me FEEL happy! 😉
love it, love it, love it!
Pinch him kinda hard. Ask him “do you feel me pinching you, or do you just THINK I’m pinching you?” He’ll be a convert.
I think I feel really good about this post, but then I feel I think too much.
Thinking only leads to a troubled mind. And a troubled mind will go down the wrong path… straight to Satan’s door 🙂
I live with Satan too. I also work for Satan. I am also mother to Satan’s Spawn. Basically if it has a penis, I feel like it should be called Satan. That’s probably not fair to Victor or many others, but hey I can choose to feel or not feel any way around a penis that I want. Wait, what?
I think that Victor will feel differently if you hug it out. See what I did there? Why, yes, I do have too much time on my hands.
That’s funny, my sisters’ kids call their father Lucifer. But that’s because he’s an asshole.
I feel that thinking is overrated. Sometimes I think feelings are underrated. Also, I think and feel those are the same thing and that reading this makes me think and feel stabby.
Nice. Clever. This is a funny post of course, and terribly witty, but I actually think this is an important distinction, and it’s not a male/female thing. We all think and we all feel, but both men and women often say “feel” to hide the judgment implicit in “think” or to mask the vulnerability of “feel.” I’ve tried to be clear about my own usage of the two over the years. What I’ve noticed is that by using “think” when I’m judging and “feel” when I’m actually expressing my feelings, I’ve clarified my own self-understanding while at the same time getting more validation from others of my feelings.
Sorry to get all serious and stuff. I can tell you’re all staring at me in disbelief over your cocktails and will go back to whatever you were talking about a moment ago, pretending I’m not even here. I’ll just wander off to talk to the stuffed rat.
(Never apologize. I totally feel you. ~ Jenny)
Then Victor must be playing Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love” – – – “Think about it . . . ”
Ally Bean, I’m a lawyer, and I think my family feels your pain.
Remember SATAN is an anagram of SANTA (and put that thought into your stockings).
At least he didn’t say that you ARE insane and irrational. He just THINKS this. Which means nothing. Sometimes I THINK I’ll die if I don’t have a donut in the morning. Still here.
But what happens when you think about your feelings? Isn’t that just having feelings? Which makes the thinking redundant. And when something is redundant it totally doesn’t exist. So, ergo and stuff, thinking doesn’t exist.
Ipso facto theorom proved done and done.
Oh to be a fly on your wall! 😉
I think I love you. Is that using my brain or my heart (or my courage)? It’s starting to feel like the Wizard of Oz up in here.
Victor is Satan? Why do I hear him doing a Dana Carvey church lady impression?
When I don’t think it leads to trouble. However, I feel…with my hands.
I’m starting to think Victor enjoys playing Devil’s advocate a bit too much…
According to research on the brain we make emotion based decisions. We all do. Regardless of gender. So boo ya take that Victor.
‘Hooked on a feeling, I’m high on believing. Or just high.’
We were literally just arguing the mirror of this last night. My version of Satan thinks that I’m completely a feeler (I do have strong feelings) and not a thinker at all, but in reality, I’m such an OVER thinker…
love you both 🙂
Thinking is over rated!!!!!!!!!
I feel that y’all are overthinking this whole thing…
Merry Christmas Bloggess and family – all of you
I try never to think or feel during the holiday season. It messes with the to-do list in my head. Auto-pilot is the way to go! Happy Holidays everyone!
INFP here. I have all the feels. ALL of them. I feel the over-thinking thing as well, though, so…yeah, I’ve had some variation of that conversation quite often. Tonight even, when a thinker needed someone to understand how he felt, then resorted to thinking again to avoid feeling…Men, amirite? The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but one is typically more prominent in the way we relate to ourselves and others.
THIS! This is why I love you…I love bacon….I love you…I love bacon…I love you! This Tribe Rules!
I start most of my sentences with “I feel like….” for some reason people find it super annoying. I feel like you get me.
What did that guy Descartes say? Cogito ergo sum? More like Credo ego, ego sum ??forsit ….I think I feel, therefore I probably am.
but then again, it’s very possible that I am not.
Who is to say?
I think you stoled all my feels…. and my thinks too
A friend of mine sent me a text with your blog during a boring lecture in nursing school while she was sitting directly behind me. Her message said, “every conversation between you and your husband that you feel interesting enough to tell me reminds me of Jenny Lawson”. I followed the link sent, read some, and immediately bought the book. Thank you for being able to write it, I SO relate!
I think, therefore I spam….Horace B IV Descartes
I think I love you….The Partridge Family Cult
Love you, Jenny. I laugh out loud way more often because you write. Thank you.
Hey! Also an INFP here. I guess I see my thoughts and feelings being like feet? That sounds weird. Let me spin that out – one foot’s thoughts and the other’s feelings. Together, they get me around, they help me dance (badly but enthusiastically), I occasionally trip over them, and they help me run away from bears and stomp out fires. As an INFP if I try to operate using one of them without the other the result is comical and ends badly. If I try to analyze and alter the way I walk I usually end up walking in circles or kicking myself in the shin or something. I may always start my stride with my dominant foot (feelings) but if I don’t immediately follow that up with the thinking foot I fall flat on my face. Something I keep re-learning. I know other people don’t operate like this and I do find that confusing.
You guys are awesome.
http://blog.keirsey.com/ will explain it all. ANNNNNNDDDDD give you guys at least 16 personality types to argue over… um discuss. I am a thinker/feeler, depending on variety of factors. My sister is a thinker. My brother is a thinker. So you can imagine I have a fun time throwing monkey wrenches into the Enterprise’s warp coil every once in a while. OK. All the time. 😀
My husband and I could never have these types of conversations; I would always win. He claims he’s at a disadvantage because English is his second language. So full of excuses.
Two sides of the same coin.
If you’re ever looking to get married to another couple, my husband and I volunteer. Of course, he knows nothing about his acquiescence, he is snoring loudly right now, but he’ll be fine. The post linked below explains it all.
Oh, people definitely feel rather than think. I think they might think they think, but they usually don’t. Even advanced scientific studies are more based on feelings than logic most of the time.
This is not a good thing though. We’re not really using our big old brains as much as we could: http://heinakroon.com/2012/07/18/the-limbic-society/
Check out this mouse chess set. http://www.etsy.com/transaction/168320746
Scroll down to see king and queen.
Well, I definitely believe that thinking gets in the way of feeling…and it’s a damn shame. Oh, and this post made my head hurt…I hope you’re happy. ; )
I always think/feel that most of the difference comes down to semantics.
Feist: I feel it all. That is my always go to theme song. I think it would suit you too. 🙂
I’m apparently hyper-sensitive to feelings in people around me, according to my shrink. Plus I over think EVERYTHING (didn’t need to be told that). So when you think about it, thinking and feeling can both screw with you. Maybe we should roll them up into a single word like ‘feenk’. I feenk too much.
Rose to Queen Victoria: “Are you NOT AMUSED? HMM??”
Absolutely love reading these conversations between you and Victor. It’s like 40’s movie patter with the smart dame and the wisecracking guy who is tough on the outside and mushy on the inside.
And now I’m stuck with the Feelings ear worm.
Woooow…… Pretty sure my fiance and I will have a conversation VERY similar to this in our married life.
Also, to Victoria in comment #94, *giggles*
So funny Jenny! I’m picturing a wonderfully horrible video where you’re singing “Feelings” and Victor’s belting out “Think” by Aretha Franklin. It all takes place in a debate-like fashion. Or maybe like Dueling Banjos. You win either way 🙂
True love… yah think?
i need to blog the 6 page note I wrote on sticky notes to my husband bc I screamed at him to help me clean up the spilled trash on my birthday. it was all about how my feelings are trapped inside and they come out sideways and like the cracken.
i get it i get this i get what you are putting out there.