Friday, September 23, 2005
Looking in the mirror
Everyday we look into the mirror to fix our hair, powder our nose or check if our clothes look okay. Yet how many see the person inside that body they see in front of them?It's easy to take that inner persona for granted. We pick up so many alter egos along the way it's not impossible to lose the real person inside. We become super mom when the kids are there...become super manager when the staff arrive...become super employee when the boss is in town...become super friend when someone is in need. We wear so many masks too. We wear the happiness mask when we need to be perky despite the pain inside. We wear the indifference mask when we need to appear nonchalant when every fiber of our being is screaming to release that pent up love or anger. We wear that mask of honesty when in truth, we are giving others just one version of the real score.
Through the years we need these different pesonas and masks to cope with life. Sometimes it makes sense but more often than not, it doesn't. I've learned the hard way that being true to myself doesn't cut it most of the time...but not doing so makes it even worse. No matter how many people you convince to be on your side of the argument, at the end of the day when you look at yourself in the mirror, you know when you've messed up. The worst thing about the whole charade is dragging others into the picture. But you think it's easier to admit that to the person in the mirror? Not really. Some find it hard to admit to themselves they did wrong. Stranger still is that many are likewise scared to admit to themselves if they are right or that they are better than they think they are. Now why is that?
Everytime I face the mirror, I face a painful truth. I see someone who is not perfect. I see someone with lots of mistakes in the past. It's a bitter pill to swallow that I could have done better had I known what I know now. Yet facing the mirror is also a liberating experience if you can get past the imperfection and really see through the person staring back at you. Maybe, just maybe, that person can give you answers. And just maybe that person can show you not just the bad but the many good things other people see in you that you do not see for yourself.
If only each person who looks at the mirror in the morning can talk to that person instead of ignoring it. Maybe their day will start and end differently because at the end of each day, connecting with this inner persona is the only way to come to terms with that thing called LIFE.
Now if only that inner persona can get a little weight out of its physical being...and probably get me a cuter nose and a drop-dead Close-Up smile to match a winning personality...nyahaha! (Heck, I'm just trying to push the "mind-over-matter" theory to the limit!)
