Everyone wears a mask, either to protect themselves from society or to protect society from themselves.
How many people hide misery and pain behind a smile or chaos behind an “I’m fine”.
Within all of us lies a complex network of hopes, desires, loves, beliefs and a whole other smorgasbord of emotions and behaviours that usually surface at the most inappropriate of times. How do most of us handle this? We put the mask on until the mask can’t hide the chaos any more and it falls and breaks.
Robin Williams was the perfect example. What a wonderful mask he had, he fooled everyone! The man that gave millions so much joy was himself hiding his own chaos. Now I don’t know if he reached out for help or if the help he asked for wasn’t skilled enough to help him through his unique experience, but it was too late and the world is worse off.
You see, what we feel can be so strong that the only way to try to remain sane is to put the mask on. The mask gives us temporary relief from what we feel inside but what we feel inside still rages on, be it love, hate, fear, shame, sadness, guilt, grief and a few others.
We’re created by the events of the past. They stay with us and we can get stuck in them. The past moulds us into what we are today. Some people have had the most perfect mould or they’ve been raised with strength to create their own mould. Others haven’t been as lucky. To the people that have their innocence taken away in their youth or beliefs so completely against the beauty of their soul then a mask is what they have to wear today.
The past has a lot to answer for. It can build the most amazing person or it can create a person so internally divided that the only option for a world that’s built on order and logic is for that person to put on the “I’m fine” mask.
Newsflash. We’re not all fine. Look behind the masks, be brave, reach out, you may just be the help that person needs.
“One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.”.
Shannon L. Alder
