Masks

[scriptordelecto]

I'm rather fond of my human mask.

It keeps the villagers from fetching the pitchforks and torches.

Wood fires totally stain infernal suits.

 

[scriptordelecto]

Eh. I've long gotten over how unimportant I am in the scheme of things.

I've said nothing that Socrates, Christ, Buddha or Lao Tze haven't said thousands of years ago.

But it's ALL been said before. If we stopped talking about things that have already been discussed, the world would be an awfully quiet place.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Mask:affectation, air*, appearance, aspect, beard*, blind, camouflage, cloak*, concealment, cover-up, disguise, disguisement, dissembling, dissimulation, domino*, facade, fig leaf*, front, guise, hood, masquerade, pose, posture, pretense, pretext, put-on*, screen, semblance, show*, simulation, veil*, veneer, visor, vizard, window dressing*

Pantomime:assuming, characterization, depiction, dramatics, dramatizing, enacting, enactment, feigning, hamming*, histrionics, imitating, imitation, impersonate, improv, mime, mimicry, pantomime, performance, performing, play-acting, playing, portrayal, portraying, posing, posturing, pretending, pretense, rendition, seeming, showing off, simulating, stagecraft, stooging*, theatre, theatricals, thesping

To me masks are magical. Whether they are in physical or emotional or spiritual forms. We wear masks, weave stories, like presitidigitators (sp) creating convienient illusions to make the tedious more palatable. We wear them for protection or to appear fierce. We wear them to look more desireable. We wear them to be whom ever we choose to allow ourselves to be seen as.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm rather fond of my human mask.

It keeps the villagers from fetching the pitchforks and torches.

Wood fires totally stain infernal suits.

What?! You don't just open the ground beneath them and burn them with the fires of Hell? That's what I do.

They writhe in such exquisite agony when I do.

 

[rgraham666]

But it's ALL been said before. If we stopped talking about things that have already been discussed, the world would be an awfully quiet place.

Unfortunately, we keep forgetting.

So we have to keep talking.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Eh. I've long gotten over how unimportant I am in the scheme of things.

There's a lot to be said about not being important in the scheme of things...I'd sooner go through life in complete and utter annonimmity...I don't want to be important, except to those who I love...

It's the little things in life that are important...the sunrise in the desert...the sound of the ocean...a baby's smile...

 

[rgraham666]

Mask:affectation, air*, appearance, aspect, beard*, blind, camouflage, cloak*, concealment, cover-up, disguise, disguisement, dissembling, dissimulation, domino*, facade, fig leaf*, front, guise, hood, masquerade, pose, posture, pretense, pretext, put-on*, screen, semblance, show*, simulation, veil*, veneer, visor, vizard, window dressing*

Pantomime:assuming, characterization, depiction, dramatics, dramatizing, enacting, enactment, feigning, hamming*, histrionics, imitating, imitation, impersonate, improv, mime, mimicry, pantomime, performance, performing, play-acting, playing, portrayal, portraying, posing, posturing, pretending, pretense, rendition, seeming, showing off, simulating, stagecraft, stooging*, theatre, theatricals, thesping

To me masks are magical. Whether they are in physical or emotional or spiritual forms. We wear masks, weave stories, like presitidigitators (sp) creating convienient illusions to make the tedious more palatable. We wear them for protection or to appear fierce. We wear them to look more desireable. We wear them to be whom ever we choose to allow ourselves to be seen as.

Bolding mine.

That's what my stories are for. A little light entertainment to make the day lighter.

But there's more of me in them than in almost anything I do.

People have asked me, "Who is the character you've written that you most identify with?"

I reply, "My vampire, Georges Belleveau."

Most people are very disturbed by this.

 

[rgraham666]

There's a lot to be said about not being important in the scheme of things...I'd sooner go through life in complete and utter annonimmity...I don't want to be important, except to those who I love...

It's the little things in life that are important...the sunrise in the desert...the sound of the ocean...a baby's smile...

Just so. It's the people that are important, or wish to be, that cause much of the misery in the world.

And so many forget what a wonder the simple things are.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Bolding mine.

That's what my stories are for. A little light entertainment to make the day lighter.

But there's more of me in them than in almost anything I do.

People have asked me, "Who is the character you've written that you most identify with?"

I reply, "My vampire, Georges Belleveau."

Most people are very disturbed by this.

I find it dark and intriguing.

 

[scriptordelecto]

Bolding mine.

That's what my stories are for. A little light entertainment to make the day lighter.

But there's more of me in them than in almost anything I do.

People have asked me, "Who is the character you've written that you most identify with?"

I reply, "My vampire, Georges Belleveau."

Most people are very disturbed by this.

It explains why Georges is such a strong character. Since you know he's my favorite of all your characters, you know I find it apt, rather than disturbing.

 

[rgraham666]

Thanks Abs, Mischa.

 

[Nirvanadragones]

Here is another thought to throw into the mix. If we acknowledge that at some point, we attempt to remove some of our masks, that means that we put on the masks at some stage. Babies don't have them - we talk of the innocence of childhood. It's only when we start growing up that the masks appear.

 

[scriptordelecto]

Here is another thought to throw into the mix. If we acknowledge that at some point, we attempt to remove some of our masks, that means that we put on the masks at some stage. Babies don't have them - we talk of the innocence of childhood. It's only when we start growing up that the masks appear.

I think it begins as we start school. The pressures of social integration start very early. Children can be unbelievably cruel to one another. To survive this mimic of natural selection, we begin placing our masks, our camouflage, to keep from being picked off by the predators.

 

[rgraham666]

Here is another thought to throw into the mix. If we acknowledge that at some point, we attempt to remove some of our masks, that means that we put on the masks at some stage. Babies don't have them - we talk of the innocence of childhood. It's only when we start growing up that the masks appear.

Yep.

But we raise them, projecting our expectations for them onto them.

And since we're so often projecting what our masks want, rather than what we want, or better still, what they could be onto them, the results often aren't happy.

The garden analogy is best for children. Give them sunshine, food, the very occasional gentle pruning, perhaps a stick or trellis to guide their growth. Then be amazed at the result.

I'm thinking of Zen gardens, that created without ego. The garden, the child becomes what they should be.

 

[rgraham666]

I think it begins as we start school. The pressures of social integration start very early. Children can be unbelievably cruel to one another. To survive this mimic of natural selection, we begin placing our masks, our camouflage, to keep from being picked off by the predators.

Speaking as frequent prey, I understand this all too well.

 

[scriptordelecto]

Speaking as frequent prey, I understand this all too well.

Yep....spoken from experience. I was always the smallest person my age....still am. (I'm 5' 2") I had to learn that intelligence could intimidate even the most sizeable of my classmates. It wasn't until I was in the working world, that I figured it out.

 

[mismused]

delete

 

[Misty_Morning]

I sit and wonder what I am - on this earth, who is just a mask.

I am, of that there's no doubt, but without the mask, who might I be? I try to shed all image, but this is my present awareness, my consciousness, and while in it, I know no other. How can that be? It is in my present awareness, my consciousness that I seek to know myself before this consciousness. Isn't that like trying to know God?

And why not "like trying to know God?"

We cannot know God because the created cannot know the creator, cannot have the mind of the creator. The day I was born, I was in this world - created by I knew not whom - nor to what purpose. How could I know what I was to be?

I watched, I listened as all good babies do, and assimilated I knew not how, and began becoming. In becoming I began to learn to wear a mask.

Many were my becomings, as it is with all babies, and children, and adults. Each becoming had a mask. Some were very temporary, some were not. One mask became the "me," my amalgamtion of me, how I became, how I learned to become.

If any know what my true mask is, or if there is such a thing as a true mask, please let me know. And if you have seen mine, tell me where that is to so I can finally be me. Or is it that I, as all babies, perhaps, have no mask, but only use one temporarily.

I think you do have a mask or two...fer sure


p.s. try to delete this.

 

[cumallday]

I'm trying very hard to get rid of my masks.

I read an article in a magazine many years ago entitled "Pseudo-Intimacy". It posited that we wear many masks. We have one for work, one for school, one for our families, one for every one we know and group we belong to.

And it posited that our relationships were between our masks, not between the people we actually are.

I think that's true. Certainly true in my case, I was always trying to fit in, be the 'proper' person that was expected of me. And when my masks failed, so did I.

I don't play that game any more. Uh uh, not me.

I read something similar - maybe the same thing. Sometimes I find it is necessary to put on the mask if you believe you can benefit from a situation, in the name of diplomacy or outright manipulation (at a car dealership for example). Most of the times it's a real pain in the ass and I'm a lazy son of a bitch. The upshot is I'm easy going and tend not to really care what assholes think anyways so even maskless I get along just fine. Of course, I have a loving woman and a dependable network of family and friends that I can rely on to be there for me, the real maskless me. I never fear being sans mask. There is a real light and beauty in all of us that needn't be hidden behind masks. I find it heart-rending to think of people evicted from the inner sanctuary of their own presence.

 

[mismused]

delete

 

[Misty_Morning]

Hey, you. [/end hijack]

Hey, baby.

 

[dysphemist]

People say that the reasons for wearing masks are to hide fears or insecurities or to protect themselves. A mask may also be used when a person tries to adapt to various situations or environments outside their comfort zone. I believe behavior is situational. Whether it be at work, social gathering, a trip to another country, etc..., people change themselves (appearance, behavior, demeanor) to accommodate their new situation/environment. People manifest different aspects of their personalities when they need to and that doesn't necessarily mean that they are pretending to be something they are not. They could be showing a part of themselves that doesn't normally get seen.

How do you know what is a mask and what is the real you? How do you know that in removing your "masks" you are not discarding aspects of yourself and keeping the parts that you like/want?

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Remember that little pop psych personality quiz that asks funny questions like which way do you sleep, what kind of dreams do you have, do you walk fast and look down, etc., and then tells you how you are viewed by other people in a way that appears to be pretty accurate in most cases? That description of my personality would be my mask - except is it a mask if it seems pretty accurate?

 

[Nirvanadragones]

People say that the reasons for wearing masks are to hide fears or insecurities or to protect themselves. A mask may also be used when a person tries to adapt to various situations or environments outside their comfort zone. I believe behavior is situational. Whether it be at work, social gathering, a trip to another country, etc..., people change themselves (appearance, behavior, demeanor) to accommodate their new situation/environment. People manifest different aspects of their personalities when they need to and that doesn't necessarily mean that they are pretending to be something they are not. They could be showing a part of themselves that doesn't normally get seen.

How do you know what is a mask and what is the real you? How do you know that in removing your "masks" you are not discarding aspects of yourself and keeping the parts that you like/want?

I like your post The clothes we wear, jewelry, etc although it is seen as individual choices, and therfore portrays who we are, is also part of our mask, at times.

I like the idea that a mask may be a temporary something we choose to wear to ease us into a situation, or new environment. In that case, it offers safety.

 

[Misty_Morning]

Remember that little pop psych personality quiz that asks funny questions like which way do you sleep, what kind of dreams do you have, do you walk fast and look down, etc., and then tells you how you are viewed by other people in a way that appears to be pretty accurate in most cases? That description of my personality would be my mask - except is it a mask if it seems pretty accurate?

Yes, if you have become so convincing to others that you are able to convince yourself that it is real, when in fact it is not...does that make sense? That's what I have done.