A Duffer's Journey
Have you read the materials in the Can thread? (Not that it's necessary, I just wondered). Somewhere in there is a link to lieke's blog post about duffers (also found in Derny's sig). In reply to the question "how do I know I'm a duffer," she wrote this:
That is a question that i cannot answer. Personally i don't know whether i am one or not, and i think there are some more people who don't know... then you have some who think they are, but aren't... I guess that how you find out is: Start duffering, read the "required reading" in this thread/topic [the Order of the Can]. Duffer away and get into the order of the can... But besides that: i cannot give you any advise, you have to find your own stile of duffering, and it might take a while, but remember: true duffering never lies. You will know it soon enough... and when you don't: don't worry, take your time, you will come there.
Someone else once said something like, "some people think they are duffers when they are not, some people think they aren't duffers when they are, some people think they are and are, others know they aren't' ..." which was a very good point, even though it doesn't seem to make much sense.
I think many duffers at one point or other wonder about the question. I sure did. When I started
this thread ("Am I Insane?"), and
this thread ("Duffers?") I was wondering the same question.
Protag, first to respond to "Am I insane?" made a perfect point, I was trying to hard. I really wanted to be a
real duffer, I really wanted the approval of the duffer community. But then one day, it just stopped mattering. One day I just thought "heck, who cares if I'm really a duffer or not? I'm just here to have fun." I realized at the time that I could never match the wit and randomness of those whom I considered "real duffers," so I just stopped trying. I simply had fun tossing people off of cliffs and reading through old, old threads. It stopped mattering.
The somewhere down the road, I woke up one day, and I realized that I
was a duffer after all. I wasn't trying to, it was simply a state of being, as some have wisely put it. I loved this world of craziness, I
am this world of craziness, and perhaps I had even developed my own taste of humor.
Ever since that revealing day, I've never been in doubt.
There is no single definition of duffer. What constitutes as dufferness for one may not work for another, and it certainly isn't the number of posts or the threads one posts in that makes one a duffer. There is no certain rite of passage (that would kill the heart of dufferness!), there are no set requirements for one to meet. Dufferness just ain't like that. Some wonderful duffers never realize their dufferness, others vehemently deny their dufferness, yet by doing so earned the title "Queen of Duffers."
I guess I'm just trying to say, one need not
try to be a duffer. If one has an inner heart of Dufferness, one inevitably becomes a duffer. Even if one fought for sanity, one would eventually lose it.
The readings are usually a good place to get a rough picture of what dufferness is like, but it is by no way comprehensive or exhaustive. You can
refuse to join in the throwing of people off of cliffs, which would in no way diminish your dufferness.
Does it really matter for one to be official recognized? no.
The Golden Rule of Dufferness:
Go forth and enjoy thyself!