I have to say I’ve been thinking a lot about identities lately. I’m writing my thesis about it, I’m looking a my life introspectivly and I’ve realized that it’s something thats removable. I remember writing a poem about this too my first semester at Rowan, at the time I sort of left it in the back of my head, but I was looking in the mirror and thinking about it.
Masks hide something gruesome or weak or terrible or sparkling and we all wear them for different sakes. We wear them to work, we were them to relationships, we wear them everywhere. I think some people lose themselves in these personalities and others shrink away from them.
Why these masks though? Defense, offense? We wear them for every reason. Others find that the masks may be the most important part of their lives, but I feel its the face behind that should be focused on. It’s the face hiding that thing that everyone feels the need to keep from even their most intimate relationships.
Perhaps the masks never come off and perhaps we need to learn to mold the face behind into them, but this seems to be the life that many are beginning to lead.
What mask are you wearing?
This sounds quite similar to a Billy Joel song. . . . You might be interested in reading “Who Am We” by Sherry Turkel, which appeared in Wired in 1995 http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle.html.