The Masks We Wear

This past week when my plane landed in New Orleans, I started walking through the airport and I found myself stopped in front of a gift shop.  New Orleans has a lot of unique trinkets that they are known for such as beaded necklaces, voodoo dolls, and the inspiration for this post, masks. 

The masks sold in New Orleans are an essential part of the city’s Mardi Gras celebration but masks go back even further than that.   Throughout the ages the festivities of Carnival were celebrated with masquerade balls and these elaborate dances rose to the height of their popularity during the Renaissance in Europe.  Somewhere along the line the tradition of masked parties designed to conceal identities became a thing of the past, or did they?  As I stood in front of the mirror with a mask covering a portion of my face, I couldn’t help but think about the masks we all wear every day. 

I had a friend that I knew for a very long time and I thought I knew him better than anyone else did.  It had been such a long time since this person had crossed my mind but while I tried on masks, I couldn’t help but think of him.  You see this person wore a mask, so much so that I don’t know if he would event be able to recognize himself without his protective shell.  He became the person that everyone wanted him to be and the honest truth was that I always felt bad for him having to hide behind a mask but I should have been worried about removing my own. 

You see, I was hiding behind a mask too and when it came to this particular person, my mask concealed the fact that I didn’t really know him at all.  I can’t tell you his favorite color or his deepest darkest secret.  I didn’t know his most embarrassing moment, his parents’ first names, or what he wanted to be when he grew up.  I’m not sure what his favorite movie is, where he vacationed as a kid, or what his favorite holiday was.  I had spent years trying to get into his heart and it was easier to throw on the mask to pretend that I had, when the real truth was I could never seem to get even close to him letting me in.

We tend to build things up in our heads, masking the reality of what they really are, furthering my theory that we all wear masks.  Sometimes it just easier to believe the version of the story that we want to hear rather than the version as it really is.  Masquerade balls were are all about pretending and hiding but eventually the event had to come to end and the masks had to be removed.  Someday we will have to remove our masks too, which may allow us to see things with a new clarity.

So I bought a mask in New Orleans.  I bought it to remind me that even though it’s fun to play dress up and make believe, masks are supposed to come off.  Sure we want people to see us a certain way but if that’s not really who we are, then what is the point of pretending?  And if you are pretending, what is stopping you from truly becoming that person?

"If I were two faced, would I be wearing this one?" Abraham Lincoln