What Do Your Eyes Communicate? Answers and a Winner!

Image by Sumanley xulx

Following up on last week's blog showing 21 people in their Covid-19 masks, here is what the subjects self-reported they were thinking or feeling:

#1 Barbara Federlin: Overwhelmed.

#2 Becca Puglisi: Irritation.

#3 Brenda Covert: Shock.

#4 Barbara Lee Bryant: Foolish.

#5 Annonymous Male: Be Positive!

#6 Donna Earnhardt: Happy to have a mask.

#7 Jarm Del Boccio: Peaceful.

#8 Jean Hall: Tired.

#9 Joan Edwards: Surprise.

#10 Laurie Foote: "I must open my eyes wide enough so my droopy eyelids don't make me look 100 years old, while not enough that I look terrified!"  

#11 Melodye Shore: "I felt seen. I felt loved. I felt more protected, of course, but in some ways I felt more vulnerable. And I saw more clearly the vulnerabilities of those with whom I came in contact."

#12 Wendell and Linda Phillips: Glad to have masks.

#13 Mary Ellen Stack Pike: Exasperation.

#14 Virginia and Tom O'Malley: "I was thinking that no one knows I am smiling. Virginia was most likely thinking, 'What a wonderful, loving, and caring husband I have.' or, 'What will we do for dinner?'" 

#15 Kathleen Burkinshaw: "I'm at high risk."

#16 John Craig: "Disappointed in cancellations. I wonder who I would have met."

#17 Pat Baldwin: "I'm the oldest person you know who is wearing a mask!"

#18 Tony Reames: "Thankful to have an appealing mask that my neighbor made." 

#19  Kathy Wiechman: Amused.

#20 Jim Wiechman: "This mask doesn't fit right."

#21 Barry Schifreen: "I hope my hair looks OK."

Photo by  neelam279 / 523 images 

Only three brave souls played the game; synonyms were allowed.

First place: Goes to Joan Edwards who guessed seven correct answers (not including her own).

Second place: Goes to Angela Ackerman who guessed six correctly.

Third place: Goes to Barry Schifreen with four correct answers. 

For those of you who were pictured, you may want to look at the comments on last week's blog to see what these three readers thought your eyes communicated.

Angela Ackerman wrote in a Facebook message, "It was tough, lol, but it really made me think!" She and I went back and forth on how writers need to use more than eye expressions to show what a character is feeling. Hopefully, that will be the topic of another blog.

Cathy Biggerstaff commented: "My daughter is a nurse in a Covid-19 unit and one of her patients wrote an article for his local newspaper when he got well. He said he came to know his nurses through their eyes because that's all he could see. I thought that was a powerful statement."

 Anestiev / 1182 images 

What Do Your Eyes Communicate?

Congratulations to Linda Phillips for winning THE HEART CHANGER from last week's blog.

******

This week I have something different for you. The first time I went out in public with my Covid mask and saw other people in their masks, I thought about how as a writer, I try to capture nonverbal expressions to show (rather than tell) how my characters are feeling. Many times, that is through their eye expressions. It also made me think of One Stop for Writers and all of their helpful tools for writers. Like this one from the Eye entry of their Physical Feature thesaurus:

Then, my sister, Barbara Federlin, texted me a selfie in her mask:

#1 Barbara Federlin

From there, this post and a "game" was born.

RULES: 

Starting with the picture of my sister Barbara, leave me a comment with the feeling you think the person was experiencing (or what you imagine they were thinking) when the picture was taken. Synonyms are OK. Surprise and shock, for example, would be considered acceptable synonyms. Likewise fear, anxiety, or worry. Let's see who can read eye expressions the best. If an emotion isn't obvious, just guess!

Next week I'll share the answers and who read the eyes the best. 

Note: The last person pictured doesn't have a number because all he was concerned about was that the picture came out OK! But I thought it was the most unique mask of all--his wife made it for him out of a yarmulke. 

BONUS FOR WRITERS: At the end of this blog I have two diagrams I have on my Pinterest board and lengthier quotes from a few of my FB friends. 

#2 - Becca Puglisi 

#3 Brenda Covert

    

#4 Barbara Lee Bryant

#5 Annonymous male

#6 Donna Earnhardt 

#7 Jarm Del Boccio 

#8 Jean Hall

#9 Joan Edwards

#10 Laurie Foote

#11 Melodye Shore

#12 Wendell and Linda Phillips 

#13 Mary Ellen Stack Pike

#14 Virginia and Tom O'Malley

#15 Kathleen Burkinshaw

#16  John Craig

#17 Pat Baldwin

#18 Tony Reames

#19 Kathy Wiechman

#20 Jim Wiechman

Barry Schifreen 

NEXT:

In the comments write the number of the photo and the emotion or thought that you think was going through the subject's mind or what he or she was feeling. 

WRITING HELPS

writerswrite.co.za

From Melodye Shore: "I felt seen. I felt loved. I felt more protected, of course, but in some ways I felt more vulnerable. And I saw more clearly the vulnerabilities of those with whom I came in contact. Even though most of our faces aren’t visible, we can still make eye contact. That’s important and a critical difference to how things usually are. Our eyes reveal so much about who we are and how we are feeling! They truly are the windows to our souls." 4/23/20

From Tony Reames: "I was thinking that wearing masks in public may become the new normal as some states rush to “open back up.” 4/21/20