Second hand masks

How do we try to control how others see us?

Halloween is over

And the masks remain

I know a thing or two about masks.

I used to make them. What’s more, I used to teach with them. I helped young people imagine and enact new ways of being in the world and get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

In a lot of ways, that’s still my job.

This time of year, I see masks everywhere. They’re not just on the sale rack at Value Village. They’re not simply there to prevent COVID transmissions.

I’m noticing the masks that we wear unaware of the fact that they’re on.

We put them on every day. Glasses, make-up and the clothes we choose are the masks and trappings of the role of the character that we bring into the world.

Authentic? It’s an authentic device to keep us safe as we come into contact with others. 

And?

These are things we do to change and control how others perceive us.

When we want to be seen as open and understanding, we hold and contort our face in a ‘mask’ of this. We hide our hostility, doubt and fear behind an outward expression of ‘Tr…