By Yilva Kalmanson
During the 19th century, decorative masks
often were worn by guests attending parties hosted by aristocrats. Non-aristocrats would use the disguise to
cover up a suspicious activity. At those masked balls people could say what they
wanted without the fear of being identified by other member of the community.
Masks are a powerful form of disguise, it is something
that can be used to conceal the real identity of the person. Probably the most
difficult thing in the world is to show others who we really are. I do not even
think most of us know who we really are because we are so used to wearing social
masks for most of our lives. The problem is that when the time comes that you
want to reveal your true self to another we cannot remember how to remove the
mask. We have become the mask.
Today, masks are used to represent our roles in society. The
game always is between appearance and reality and the endless round of masking
and unmasking when we get home. When we are in public we wear our “social masks”
permitting us to present different versions of ourselves to other people.
Depending on the situation, we have different ways of presenting ourselves at
work and in public than we do when we are alone. Some of us like to play the
role of the “successful businessman,” others the “clever one,” or the “sexy
girl,” the “good mother,” the “playboy” and many others. It all depends of what
we want people to believe we are, not necessarily who we really are.
Masks also allow us to feel “safe” and block
others from discovering our raw or true nature.
Even if normalcy does not exist in our lives, we like to wear a mask of
normalcy so that we can project an illusion of wellbeing and hide all our fears
and defects.
The key to true happiness is to accept who we
really are without thinking about who we are not and what is lacking in our
lives. That is why people who live in societies that lack an abundance of
material things feel more content with themselves and what they do have because
they don’t feel the need to pretend to be better then others. They do not need
to use social masks because they are satisfied with what they have and are
comfortable living in their own skin – unlike most of us.
The best of all the roles I have found in life is
being myself. It allows me to stop thinking about who I “should” be and allows
me to begin a new journey of helping others because I want to, not because I
want to show others my “good citizen” mask. The meaning of life started for me
when I stopped thinking about what others think of me and began a whole new way
of thinking about the well being of others.
Acknowledging who we really are is the only way
to achieve reality in life.
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