The sun sets on another day…
Sunset was spectacular, and again I was driving, again between one place and another.
Usually the day sparks a lot of ideas about what I write about. Usually the day can contain dozens upon dozens of good topics, then one where the words flow. This week I have a great deal of words lost in my mind as I struggle to understand the meaning of life, and the way of it all. I don’t do this often as life is not a riddle that can be solved, but a series of permutations to an end. IT is not unlike an endless puzzle where as one box opens another is found. The only thing I have found for sure is there are few if any finite answers, and even fewer people who are willing to keep seeking and understanding more. More often than not I find people who find a hypothesis that fits their line of thinking and use convenient data to build a destination that is “figured out” and share that destination over and over.
I met someone last night and had an interesting discussion, which turned into me listening to them supply data point after data point. It had me thinking a great deal and in the end I was impressed and at the same time interested in talking more.
In essence the man was talking about masks. His explanation of the time of the Greeks and Hypocrites was good and I listened to learn and tried to incite and understand more. I am fascinated by the masks we wear daily. A Japanese quote states we wear three masks. The one we show the public, the one we show our friends, and the one we know beneath it all, our true self. I have found it is more complicated than that in this day and age and the essence of the quote makes sense, but the depth can no longer be a static item. After all, we are constantly in flux and constantly in a new social situation. The internet as a whole ahs created a new mask for many to wear, and beyond that the plethora of perilous paradoxes created by technology have created even more complexities. New drugs and alcohol create even more juxtapositions of junque (French? lol).
As I considered it all, there was a bit of sadness in me. I can see the point of the original mask quote, but now it seems as though many people are instead like the center of diamonds, surrounded by multi-layer facets of mask after mask hidden deep inside. People now have their online persona; their work persona; their gym persona; there home persona; their dating persona; their job hunting persona; their married persona and so it goes ad nauseum until somewhere we have lost the ability to know ourselves.
Want to scream yet?
Don’t.
Perhaps it is time to find out who we are first, and in our lone persona find out who we are, and minimize what we project to others, if at all. Is who we are so bad we cannot present it? Perhaps, but can we at least have just 2 personas, the persona that we know and the persona that we show?
As I considered this all I must state that I am probably there. After years alone and facing pain each day of my life, I have found who I am. I project and am what I am, but I also know that inside their is still the hidden ID so to speak, the persona I know and keep locked away . Which is the real me? They all are.
Ursula K Le Guin wrote a series called the Earth Sea Trilogy that explored one mans realization that each of us has at least 2 sides. Perhaps there the faces end and as the Main character, Ged, found the shadow is and always was/will be part of him and is able to tame the shadow and allow it to return to his very soul. The darkness inside was tamed by the light, and nothing else existed besides the two. Remember though, your darkness is as much a part of you as your light.
I know, I know, too much today, but I think about this a great deal already, and I could probably write a tome on the dynamics of internet personalities on their own. Instead I simply ask you, each of all of you out there reading, to ask yourself how many facets you have and to determine if you can simplify, consolidate, and become the ones you need to become. After all, being the truthful one all the time may not seem to be good, but you will never have to remember who you are for anyone as you will always be you.
So as the sun sets on another day, perhaps many people wear masks. Perhaps even you do. For me, I will be the one I am at all times as I will not remember the others, and in the process will either gain friends or enemies just from the interaction. Meet me there, be who you are, not who others want or expect you to be, because you are special each and every day. You are unique, you are able to be that one person that someone else wants or needs. Be that person, each and every day, no matter what.
Sleep sweet, love life, and be you…
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