Enneagram type 5 - The Outriders

In Sandra Maitri's book, The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues, she says:

"Fives tend to be observers both of life and of themselves, looking on from a safe distance. In this sense they are scouts, surveying the territory both without and within, rather than fully traversing it."

As I read this I had a picture in my head of a group of people crossing the desert on camels. Ahead, behind and to the sides were scattered individuals observing the distance for threats, and occasionally observing the throng of the group, loud, dusty, sweaty, ebullient. Each night these outriders, or scouts, returned to the group, eating, talking, laughing, wryly observing , then ultimately withdrawing to the edge of the fire, to think, write about the day, the future possibilities, the history of the trek, or just to idly draw esoteric symbols in the sand.