The Masks We All Wear
We are all wearing masks.
There are those of us who know and choose the masks we wear.
There are those of us who have become the mask, not realizing there was ever a time the mask was not a part of us.
There are those of us who are in between those two perspectives.
The are those of us who fall amidst the spectrum outside of those two.
Are there any of us that bare all? Is it even possible?
Would it not, to disclose every moment, take at least the time of every life moment? Depending on your current age, you would spend the second half of your life, describing the first, to just one person, without time to do anything else. This would be to bare oneself fully naked.
It is not reasonable, practical, or realistic.
So then, we do not judge as a binary, but rather a spectrum. Everyone is wearing a mask. The questions are, “What are you masking?” “Why are you masking?” “How often do you mask compared to the average person in the approximate center of a bell curve?
The questions to ask are many. There is no shortcut. These questions are getting asked and these questions are getting answered.
There is no forward movement until an agreeable understanding is reached.
We can’t skip asking these questions. We can’t skip understanding. We can’t skip communication.
Yet we can never directly address that we are wearing masks. It’s an unspoken rule of the game.
It is our own responsibility to determine what other people are and are not masking. It is a solo mission to ascertain the authenticity of an individual.
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We ask ourselves silently and provide ourselves with answers.
We are burdened to become seers of these hidden masks. Readers of them. Interpreters of them.
We must become mind readers. We must become body language readers. We must pick up on a person’s vibes. We must know who is consciously masking and who is subconsciously just from seeing or interacting with them for a short period of time.
The Tip of the iceberg.
We must, if we want to succeed and to make the fewest enemies and the most allies.
What sort of mask are you wearing? What are its limits? What are its boundaries? What are its hesitations? What are its celebrations?
We’ll only be able to adapt to each other and our cultures and their differences if we can become philosophical citizens of a shared sunrise.
We can only do that if we wager correctly on one another.
We’ve never danced before and we’re judged entirely on how we dance together when we meet for the first time.
No one cares if it is “unfair.” It all comes down to your first impression. Our first dance.
Your ability to get me to see you the way you want to be seen. The way you see yourself.
Your ability to see my mask, evaluate my flow, adjust yours to align with mine, and present in your mask, what you’ve deduced is the desired result, determines how the rest of our lives together will go.
The first dance. The first impression.
So know thyself.
So take a look in the mirror. See your mask. Realize we all have them. Especially the people who seem as though they don’t.
Look in the mirror. See your mask. Put it on. Take it off.
Look in the mirror. See your mask. Align Your Image with Who You Are.
