Why Belonging is in the deck
Belonging is card 44, in the Self cluster. It can be read around position: fully accepted inside a group, or always somewhere near its edge.
Some players will hear a team, a class or a family where they fit without trying. Others will hear the feeling of being half in, watching how everyone else seems to know the rules. Both are a sense of belonging, or the lack of one.
Read from different places
Belonging sits next to Loneliness in the deck. The WHO Commission on Social Connection describes loneliness as the gap between the relationships people have and the ones they want. Belonging is the other end of that gap.
The word also changes with the group. Someone can belong at work and not at home, or in a city and not in their own family. It suits teams and classes, where people share a room and may each feel differently about being in it.
It shares the Self cluster with Nostalgia and Independence.
The other side: Headphones
The other side is Headphones. It was picked for two opposite moves: shutting the world out, or sharing one earbud with someone. It’s an everyday object for younger players.
How to play this card
Draw it. Choose a side: Belonging or Headphones. Roll the die. Look at the word from that side.
From the rule card: “Every view is welcome, especially one that differs from yours.”
Keep going
- Loneliness · card 25
- Nostalgia · card 47
- Home · card 49
- Thesis: the game · Play online · Research