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There are people who feel totally unsuited to small-group experiences. Here is how Anita Diamant, in a section "Meeting Adjourned" from her book Pitching My Tent, explains her feelings about group meetings:
When asked to serve on the board of directors I declined, explaining, "I lack the meeting gene." I am grateful to those who are congenitally able to plan, discuss, hash out, mull, and deliberate, because I can't. I am not a slacker. I bake cookies, I write brochures, but meetings transform me into a seething misanthrope with violent tendencies. I want to punch anyone who talks too much, even if I agree with what he's saying. I want to shout obscenities at the chair, even if she's my best friend. I do not like the person I become in meetings, which is why I'm so good at saying no when asked to do anything that requires attendance at them.
When asked to serve on the board of directors I declined, explaining, "I lack the meeting gene." I am grateful to those who are congenitally able to plan, discuss, hash out, mull, and deliberate, because I can't.
I am not a slacker. I bake cookies, I write brochures, but meetings transform me into a seething misanthrope with violent tendencies. I want to punch anyone who talks too much, even if I agree with what he's saying. I want to shout obscenities at the chair, even if she's my best friend. I do not like the person I become in meetings, which is why I'm so good at saying no when asked to do anything that requires attendance at them.
Source: from Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith (pp. 204-205), by Anita Diamant, 2003, New York: Scribner's.