Masks

[SilverVeil]

I first saw this over 20 yrs ago.
It had such an impact I have remembered it this long. Just wanted to share it with ya'll.



Don't be fooled by me
Don't be fooled by the mask I wear
For I wear a thousand masks,
Masks that I am afraid to take off
And none of them are me.
Pretending is an art
That's second nature to me.
But don't be fooled
For God's sake please don't be fooled.
I give the impression that I'm secure
That all is sunny and unruffled with me,
Within as well as without.
That confidence is my name
and coolness is my game.
That the water is calm
and I'm in command,
and that I need no one.
But don't believe me please !
My surface my seem smooth
But my surface is my mask
Beneath this lies no complacence
Beneath dwells that real me in confusion, in fear, in aloneness.
I panic at the thought of weakness
And fear being exposed.
That is why I frantically create my mask to hide behind.
A nonchalant sophisticated facade
To help me pretend, to shield me from that glance that knows.
But such a glance is precisely my salvation.
My only salvation, and I know it.
That is, if it is followed by acceptance,
If it's followed by love.
It's the only thing that wil assure me
Of what I can't assure myself.
That I am worth something.
But I don't tell you this.
I don't dare,
I am afraid to.
I'm afraid your glance will not
Be followed by acceptance and love,
I'm afraid you will think less of me,
That you will laugh at me,
And your laugh will kill me.
I'm afraid that deep down I am nothing.
That I'm no good ... and that you will
See this and reject me.
So I play my game, my desperate game,
With a facade of assurance without,
And a trembling child within.
And so begins the parade of masks.
And my life becomes a front.
I idly chatter to you in the suave tones
Of surface talk.
I tell you everything
That is really nothing.
And nothing of what's everything
Of what's crying within me.
So when I'm going through my routine
Do not be fooled by what I am saying.
Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying.
What I'd like to be able to say.
What for survival I need to say.
But what I can't say.


Author unknown to me at this time.



How many people go through life living this way ? It has always made me wonder.
I have a few masks. Well .. more than a few. I wear them often. They come in handy.

 

[claude_moveml]

A quick search on Google tells me it's by Charles C Finn, and continues:

I dislike hiding, honestly, I dislike the superficial game I'm playing, the superficial phony game. I'd really like to be genuine, spontaneous and me, but you've got to help me, you've got to hold out your hand, even when it's the last thing I seem to want or need.

You can help wipe away from my eyes--the blank stare of grieving dead. You can help call me into aliveness each time you're kind, gentle and encouraging. Each time you try to understand because you really care, my heart begins to grow wings, very small wings, very feeble wings, but wings.

Iif you choose to, please choose to. You can help break down the wall behind which I tremble. You can encourage me to remove my mask. You can help release me from my shadowed world of panic and uncertainty. From my lonely prison.

So do not pass me by-- please don't pass me by. It will not be easy for you. A lone conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls. The nearer you approach me, the blinder I may strike back.

It's irrational, but despite what books say about man, I am irrational, I fight against the very things that I cry out for, but I am told love is stronger than strong walls. In this lies my hope, my only hope, please help beat down those walls with firm hands, but with gentle hands--for a child is very sensitive.

Who am I, you may wonder? I am someone you know very well. For I am every man you meet and I am every women you meet.

I had not come across this before now. I have a few masks I guess, but you could better call them facets of my personality. I don't consciously wear them, I just react to my surroundings chameleonlike.

 

[SilverVeil]

Cool ... thanks for the added part. I have never seen that.

The part I posted was something I saw on a poster at a childrens home I was in when I was a teenager.

 

[KrazyIvaé]

we are we are the youth of the nation
we are we are the youth of the nation
hehehe remindes me of a song like that lol, but its right.

 

[sheath]

Wow...

Reading that made me feel all sorts of things. Anger, pain, guilt, and sadness. I cried. You have really given me something to think about for a very long time.

S.