Who Am I? Psychology #101

Back in my mid-twenties a friend of mine played a Psych #101 game with me that had been introduced in his class. The game or experiment, as it was most likely billed, was that one person asked another the question, “Who are you?” 

Each time the individual being questioned needed to answer that same question, "Who are you?" rapidly, 20 times in succession. 

Being his guinea pig, I played the game. I have never forgotten, that I had only one answer, each time – twenty times! “I am Elisa’s mother.” That was the sum total of who I knew myself to be then! At twenty-five. 

When I began to expand that inventory of myself, I don’t quite recall. It must have been a gradual thing to get to where I am now. Today, as I walked uphill and downhill on my morning mountain road walk -- that clears my mind so much -- I played this little game with myself, once again. Still, twenty different answers did not come easily. I came up with six in rapid succession, as follows (Thank goodness, I've grown some. Not so boring as I used to be.):

1. Elisa’s mother
2. Eric’s mother
3. A woman
4. An American
5. An American woman of Russian Jewish heritage
6. A healer
Now I am adding two more that occur spontaenously to me.

7. A country/mountain woman
8. A woman who "sees" -- everyday I thank G-d for that! (FYI, the "-" between the letters, G-d, is me honoring and proud of my Jewish heritage!)

I will ponder my other twelve answers and get back to you. In the meantime maybe you can "play" along with me. "Who am I?' And, "Who are you?" -- is, after all, a very long conversation. However, perhaps we can truly build global village if we could get down to the real!

Anastasia From the mountain where the weather is almost ideal today -- gorgeous! P.S. The name of my new friend from Bangladesh -- who is, by the way Muslim -- is "Zerrin Afza." 

You can read her posting that inspired me at: http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/profiles/blogs/when-we-are-talking-about-our