Masking The Truth

This is not the first post that Viaggiatore and I have published on masques... but it is a different masque, this time.

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

Why do we hide behind our masks? Why do we only feel the confidence to bare our souls to the universe when our faces our hidden?

Truth is no stranger, but why would we keep it… hidden away, secret… unable to face the truth without a mask?

A child's plaything? Oh no… this game is for the grownups. Children are openly honest and truthful; sometimes painfully so, but not the adults. Not the ones who believe that they must hide themselves from the world, and only come out to play when the lighting is right, and the curtain is up and the mask is on: then we can be anything we dare to be, without concern or recompense.

A mask to hide behind to tell the truth… to say this is who is inside me, what I believe, what I want, what I think, how I feel. But look neither upon my face, nor into my eyes… for therein lies my mortal soul, and it would whither should you see it bared before you.
Oh but it wouldn't… really. Fear binds us tighter than any other lie. Fear suffocates us into silence, tethers our feet to the ground so that we cannot fly into the heavens that call us, and over time it dissolves our cores like a rotting disease.

Fear is the impetus behind the need for the mask.
And for what purpose? What need? There is none.
Why would we ever hold tight to a disease that destroys us?

If we are without a mask to hide behind, then what is lost, and what is gained?

What strength could be found by defeating that façade… what honesty, truth, love and beauty could be given fully when there is no masquerade? No pretense. Would we discover that we are much closer to becoming the person that we long to be, if we did not hide our true selves away from the world?

Oh yes. Yes, indeed.

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

~John Masefield

Wonder Women

"Human beings the world over need freedom and security that they may be able to realize their full potential. We want to empower our people; we want to strengthen them; we want to provide them with the kind of qualifications that will enable them to build up their own country themselves." ~Aung San Suu Kyi

"There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other." ~Harriet Tubman

"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you."

"They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody?"

"People think that at the end of the day a man is the only answer. Actually, a fulfilling job is better for me." ~Princess Diana
 

“All our problems, all our disputes, all our disagreements can be resolved quickly to mutual satisfaction if we address the question”  "You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea." ~Benazir Bhutto

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! ~Sojourner Truth

 

There are countless women to honor on this 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, Women from every country, every culture, every imaginable background, who used their lives to make a significant difference not only in the lives of other women in their own days, but in the lives of all people in the time that followed them. I've selected a few to represent the masses who changed the world.  Thank you! For the young women just growing up today, and for those to come in years ahead, you have a mantle to carry, lifted with strength and dignity by the ladies who came before you, bear it well.