Hola
mi gente…
Today
I start going back into the belly of the beast… This time it will be Rikers. On another note, I want to wish my brother, Edgar, a very happy birthday.
This Masquerade
We all wear masks, and the time comes when
we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.
-- Andre
Berthiaume
We’re lost in this masquerade…
-- George Benson, This
Masquerade
Einstein once said that if you can't explain it to
your grandmother, then you really don’t understand it -- or something like
that. And I get that, I really do. When I was attending university, I would
spend a lot of time with my then eight-year-old son going over complicated
psychological concepts. As with most children at that age, he possessed an
insatiable curiosity and when we would do our homework together, he would
always ask about my studies (applied psych). Try explaining attachment theory,
or object relations to a kid. LOL The thing is he would usually ask the most
fundamental questions, often cutting to the core of an issue or area of study.
It was cool until one day he turned to me while we were watching TV and asked
if the lead character was showing signs of being bi-polar. LMAO
Anyway, I say all this because most of what you will
find in here is often like an introduction, in the simplest manner possible, to
concepts and practices that often took me years to absorb. Lot’s and lots of
jerking off, reading, and application. Sometimes, what happens however is that
in translating all this I have to omit important nuances otherwise I
would be sitting here writing forever. I encourage any here to further pursue anything
they might find of interest herein. I often leave links and references for
people so disposed.
I remember once going to the movies and while watching
the previews, I came across a hilarious commercial. In the commercial, a young woman
is on her way home and glamorous beautiful faces from glossy magazine covers
become animated and talk to her. One says, “You’re fat!” On the bus another
face from a magazine a fellow passenger is reading blurts out, “With your
figure you should walk!” And on and on it goes until she passes a newsstand and
she’s beset by a cacophony of relentless criticism: “You’re no good in bed!”
“You’re hopeless,” etc. Eventually the poor woman buys a magazine that, the
voiceover explains, is more interested in who she is rather than who she should
be. Very clever…
This commercial speaks to a deep truth in our modern
society: the relentless pressure to “manage” our image. The word personality
comes from the Latin root meaning mask and that’s an interesting point. We all
have a huge stake in managing our individual identities, or how others perceive
us. There’s a whole economy based on this primal need and it’s called
“self-help.” The masks we wear are varied and the reasons we wear them are
really quite simple: we wear masks to hide our true faces from others and sometimes
even from ourselves.
You know the masks: the seductive mask of the “sexy
siren” or the “innocence” mask, for example. For men, we like wearing the
“hero” or tough guy masks. Some of us wear the “black sheep” or “lone wolf”
masks. Many of us wear the “I’ve been saved and now I’m spiritual” masks.
Others wear the “I’m the Deep Philosopher/ King” mask -- that’s a good one.
The point is we become so enamored of our masks that
sometimes we lose sight that who we really are transcends all of that. We are
creatures born with a tremendous amount of potential here on this small blue
marble out here in the backwaters of space. And we’re confronted with the
opportunity to rise above it all and reclaim what is truly ours. The Big Secret
is this: you’re just fine the way you are
and most of what we like to call growth, or change, is really throwing out all
the garbage that obscures who we really are and what we can be.
The cost of wearing a mask is the loss of the chance to
develop our real potential. What masks are we attached to? Are you willing to
give up your commitment to them in the interest of real growth?
When we attempt to go within to who we really are
meant to be, we are confronted with many obstacles and there is a societal
interest in keeping you numb and/ or anxious. We live in a consumer-based
society that has a huge monetary interest in selling you newer, prettier masks.
If we all stopped chasing that mirage and actually woke up to some realities,
some very powerful interests would be very much threatened. We buy wholly into
this and if you’re even thinking of putting on the “I’m different from all
that” mask at this point -- please stop! You’re not that different, sit down
and relax.
The point is that we, yes all of us, we all
wear masks at a very high cost. Undoing the masquerade takes time, practice,
guidance and support.
My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from
civilization…
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