#236, Mask
This week, you were all bestowed a mask— a pseudonym to hide your true identity. Your peers won’t know who is underneath the mask, but will try to deduce the mystery through crumbs you leave for them. The only clues to your identity will be the ideas you write and your expression of them. How well do your peers know you? How well do you know them?
Arthur Aron is a professor of psychology known for his work on developing and analyzing interpersonal relationships. He developed a well-known list of questions designed to strengthen relationships between individuals. Eleven of those questions follow.
11 Crumbs
1. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?
2. If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30- year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?
3. Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?
4. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?
5. What is your most terrible memory?
6. If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?
7. How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?
8. When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?
9. What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?
10. If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven’t you told them yet?
11. Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing? Why?
In class, you chose a crumb and posted your response beneath your mask. Now, a mystery is afoot.
To complete this Journal response, address the following:
Who is under the mask? Comment on all of your classmates’ responses (and your own, too if you’d like to keep your identity hidden) with your guess as to his or her identity and analysis. e.g., I’m pretty sure that Lúthien is Chris because…
You may comment with your mask on or off.
Any comments confirming or denying identity will be removed.
-Brenden Lee Teacher