“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” spoken by Atticus Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.

How do you “truly” climb into another’s skin and walk around?  It is a hard thing to do, well.  For that person may be a different kind of person from you, from a different time, and from a different place.

My avocation since I was a child was as a Viking bystander.  My vocation lately has been as a Viking reader of books and people.

One can try to “climb into another’s skin” through watching a movie or play, or reading a book.  This is something we can do as humans.   We can visit different lands and different tribes – the modern words for “lands” and “tribes” is countries and cultures.  We can also visit different “ages” – through movies and living in cultures that are “slower” than your “culture” – although there are limitations and there is a possibility to not really get the “gestalt” of that age and place.

Mostly, we don’t understand “truly” – the Temperament, the Tribe, the Age that is not like us

But we can try.

Here are some autobiographies of the various Temperaments, many from a different time and different place.  Climb into the person’s skin, and walk around in it – at least for awhile.

Rationals

Ben Franklin (Inventor)

Mark Twain (Inventor)

Margaret Thatcher (Fieldmarshal)

Ulysses S. Grant (Mastermind)

Charles Darwin (Architect)

Linus Torvalds (Architect)

Idealists

Jane Goodall (Counselor)

Mohandas Gandhi (Counselor)

Jane Fonda (Teacher)

Albert Schweitzer (Healer)

Karen Armstrong (Healer)

Joan Baez (Champion)

Artisans

Katherine Hepburn (Crafter)

Lance Armstrong (Crafter)

Donald Trump (Promoter)

Neil Simon (Composer)

Jim Cramer (Performer)

Bill Clinton (Performer)

Guardians

Barbara Walters (Provider)

Sam Walton (Provider)

Andrea Mitchell (Inspector)

Mike Wallace (Supervisor)

George H. W. Bush (Protector)