The masks we wear...

Can you look beyond what you see? Can you look beyond your sight?
Will you take the time to notice my beauty from inner light?

I know I am not perfect I see it all the time, but if you see with your heart, you may see in to mine.

Can you look beyond my imperfection, can you see beyond the mask?
Will you take the time to notice me, to put yourself to task?

--Christy Gale

I wrote this poem a few years ago and forgot all about it. Then I found it, after a discussion that I had with my husband about the LAME disguises superheros wear to hide their true identity. I mean Superman, come on. You can fly, your super strong, you have laser vision and the best disguise you can come up with is a pair of glasses from the dollar store? Lets get real here. At least spiderman has a mask when he's spidey. And it's not just superheros. On Hannah Montana Billy Ray's disguise is a mustache. Really? a mustache? At this point in our discussion, I was trying to decide whether or not I should be insulted by the authors general assumption that we would be unable to discern such simple guises. Then, all at once it came to me, the disguise isn't what they are wearing. It's who they are. Superman is all duh duh duh duuuuuh!!! An pops out with his hands on his waist, and chest poking out, brimming with a confidence you just can't find nowadays. He KNOWS he can save the world. He's done it before. He knows he will be doing it again. Flip the coin. Clark Kent...he's shaky, at best. He's not confident, he's a little lost. And, lets face it, he's kind of a dork. The same thing with Billy Ray. Without the mustache he's Daddy. A loving father who wants nothing better than just his daughter to be happy. With the mustache, he's manager, propelling Hannah to stardom.

I kinda sat there awestruck for a minute. Then my brain got to cranking....as it does, and I thought of how hard it is to get to know people. We all wear this mask. We can't bare to think of people getting to know the real us. It terrifies us, because that makes us vulnerable. But maybe we need a little more vulnerability. Maybe the world should be just a little softer. We are great people. Everyone has good in them and we are so afraid to show how amazing we are. We are children of GOD. He wouldn't leave us down here on our own, to meddle through life and just hope we made it back. We have his essence inside us. We are amazing.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

--by Marianne Williamson

Just my random thoughts. That is all.

25 May 2010