Incognito

incognito \in-kahg-NEE-toh\ adverb or adjective

: with one's identity concealed

Example: "[Mary, Queen of Scots] loved St. Andrews, where she kept a small vacation cottage and often stayed incognito, doing her own shopping and cooking, and playing golf along the links by the Firth of Forth." -- From an article by Sally Jenkins in The Washington Post, July 15, 2010

This blog has oftentimes been my mask. My voice aloud, my identity incognito (for the most part)... and I find that Oscar Wilde was perhaps partially correct when he said,

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

...but I do not think that this idea is entirely true.  In the midst of the current political blizzard of lies, slanders and shallow promises, it is hard to see truth and the public masks that are worn aren't unlike those creepy clown masks with the empty eyes and painted smiles. 

There are those rare and wonderful leaders who believe in honesty, revel in it, in fact... Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Sister Theresa, Mahatma Ghandi, and so on and so forth. No mask did they wear, to speak the truth.  

I've found that I have different masques... different persona's for different circumstances and situations. 

A masque for work

  

   A masque for play

A masque for family

A masque for friends

A masque for various circumstances

I've wondered, when I gaze into the looking glass... if I wear a masque for myself too often.  I wonder how much truth comes from behind these masques... if they are half truths, partially disguised for the viewer, partially revealed, because honestly, we really want people to know who we truly are, to some extent... or at least, we show them who we want them to believe we are.

Knowing that we constantly change; daily even, I am growing towards leaving the masques behind, so that I can see clearly, so that others can see me clearly and make no mistake about who I really am and what I really think.

To thine own self be true ~ remove the masques for my own perspective and for all of those around me, because if they are interacting with a masqued me, the self is lost in shadow and the interaction is skewed.

and...

Actions speak so much louder than words ~ the truth will out, one way or another.

and...

Truth is somewhere in the middle ~ there is a bit of honesty on both sides of the masque.

But... perhaps I will keep one or two masques around... for special occasions.