They say that the eyes are the window to the soul. If this
is true than the door must be reaction.
If you are anything like me, you wear a nice little mask
around all day. This mask is a portrayal of your ideal self- the “You” that you
want everybody else to acknowledge. Maybe you have crafted this mask or maybe
it is just habit but either way you manage the charade with relative ease. We
all do.
Like it or not I take my mask seriously and very few things
can derail the defenses I have built over the years. Despite the experiences that have taught me
how to further isolate my truest self from the often painful interactions of
society I have come to recognize that no amount of careful preparation can
ready me for the wild chance that life brings.
When someone comes up behind me without announcing their
approach I am known to let lose any number of squawks or squeaks of surprise. Upon the discovery of anything that I find
delightful I (apparently) make some sort of deranged opera-ish series of
sounds. These moments speak not to who I want to be, but who I really am.
Similarly I look to my peers and see that a well-timed
comment might set free a chuckle from even the most stone-faced students, and
good friends of mine react certain ways to certain stimuli. In these moments,
these brief but tangibly beautiful glimpses of soul, I am able to understand
just a little bit better who they are, who you are, who I am.
That begs the question though; If reactions are accurate
indicators of soul then what kind of soul do I have?
…
A loud one I guess.
I agree that every one has a mask of some sort. I think for me, for my experience - not speaking for anyone else - the masks I wore and saw on my peers were much thicker in my teens and twenties. As I've grown older and experienced more things, the mask gets thinner and thinner. It becomes easier not to put it on. There is a work mask, that is barely there with my coworkers, but a bit thicker in management meetings. And there is a friend mask that is of no use and unwanted around my best friend (your mom), but has a thin coating around others who haven't really traveled with my soul like she has.
ReplyDeleteI heard our souls as described as huge by the author of a book (I didn't read). She said she believed our souls really didn't fit in our body, that our selves that are the true us (soul) are bigger than a city block. I really like hearing her beliefs, it rang of truth with me. I agree with her that we see out of our eyes, but our soul doesn't fit in our body. Our souls are HUGE! Which means to me that we can be all things, and encompass all things. Loud just might be one of them for me too :)