DO YOU WEAR A MASK? I used to think that my perfectionist tendencies drove me to be a better person. Now, looking back, I realize that all they did was imprison me in a fortress of loneliness and “never good enough.” It’s so much more liberating to be able to say to myself what I’ve always tried to say to those I love- “I see that you screwed up. I know that you’re trying to do better. But I love and accept you just as you are right now, and I don’t need you to be anything other than who you are.” Phew. What a relief. Imagine if we all stripped off our masks. Imagine if we said, “To hell with being polite; we’re just going to be real.” Imagine if, instead of lying and saying, “Fine” when someone asks how you are, you could honestly say, “I just got my heart broken and it hurts. Plus, I just took a creative risk, and I failed. But thank God the apples are ripe and sweet and make the most luscious sound when they fall to the ground at harvest time.” Wouldn’t that make your days so much more interesting? It’s sad that we make ourselves so heartbreakingly lonely by thinking that we’re not like the others, when the others- they are all just like us. Basically, there’s no such thing as “normal people” because they’re all just like you, only some are playing the game more than others. When you release that illusion of separation, the loneliness just dissolves… Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences. For every time you say club passwords like “have a nice day” and “weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?” Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator. But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others…” Will you be brave enough to be yourself, to strip off at least some of your masks, to reveal to us who you really are? Will you tell us one imperfect thing others might not know about you? Can you look at your imperfections without shaming yourself over them? If you can’t do it publicly here, will you commit to finding even one person you trust and telling him or her? Every single one of us has something we wish others would never find out. But until you tell us what it is, how can we prove to you that not only will we love you anyway, but that we’ll actually love you MORE? Will you shed your mask today and be you authentic self?
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 00:14:07 +0000
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