Dwarvish
To which race of Middle Earth do you belong? brought to you by Quizilla

And I wasn’t trying to say that you didn’t have one of yourself, I was just guessing that you probably don’t typically think of yourself that way (and judging by the fact that you said, ‘Thomas Kinkade painting’…) But don’t worry - I’m sure Karyn has a mental image for you as well.

And I’ll bet hers is not a tree.

And with that I’ll shut up and go back to work…

I’m interested in why you think I would not have one…and also why you are trying to ruin my marriage! Sheesh, why don’t you just humiliate me all the way and ask if I know my wife’s dress size?

OK…I’m going to take a stab at Karyn’s mental self-image…and probably spend the night on the couch.

I say…a tree.

This is a really ‘artistically nuanced’ question (that’s not quite right either, but I can’t think of anything better). I’ll see if I can explain.

I have a pet theory that some people (probably an introspective, imaginative, artistically inclined minority) actually have a mental picture of themselves, not so much like looking in a mirror, but more like seeing themseleves on stage in a drama, either as a particular character, or a particular creature, etc. And I suspect that they revisit that image frequently throughout their lives - the scene may change, sometimes the costume or characters are a little different, sometimes they swap it our for different images altogether - but they always thinking of themselves in this way, looking for the image that fits them best.

It’s kind of like music or poetry - where you see a mental image, except that instead of just seeing a picture that the song/poem/art is about, you see yourself in the song/poem/art, and something inside resonates deeply that this is real, right, true, this is ME.

Now I don’t KNOW that any of this is really the case. I suspect that most people probably don’t ever think of themselves this way. But yesterday I thought, “I’ll bet Karyn thinks of herself this way” (or something similar at least). And I also thought, “I’ll be Mark doesn’t really think of himself this way.” And I’m guessing now that I was probably right - Mark is probably still scratching his head going “what on earth has Christian been smoking?” And maybe Karyn is too, for that matter.

So Karyn, are you going to say anything?

I’ll bet my daughters can describe mine.