This is from another thread, but it seems like others might benefit from it too.
Imagine if you made a Halloween mask, all by yourself. Creating it was fun and when you finished it, you genuinely felt pride. What if it was the most beautiful mask you’d ever seen?
Moreover, what if it was so beautiful that everyone agreed you could wear it everyday?
Let’s say that you do; you wear it everyday and eventually everyone comes to know you by your mask. All of your FB and IG photos have you wearing it, your drivers license, family photos, hell, you even sleep with it on. Now, even YOU think the mask is you. It kind of IS you. It’s who you are NOW and you forget who you were and who you could have been, without the mask.
Then, one day, 8 police officers with rifles come to your door and tell you if you don’t take your mask off, they’ll take you to jail. Next, a doctor makes her way through the crowd and says you can never put the mask on again, or it will kill you. Lastly, your friends and family come to you and tell you they’re sorry, but you’re going to have to see your mask everywhere you go for the rest of your life and constantly see others wearing theirs.
Immediately, you feel like your center, your core, your very soul is being ripped from your chest. You get mad, trash your place and, after a terribly painful temper tantrum, eventually wear yourself out.
There is an unprecedented silence that envelopes you and emptiness in everything you see. They are gone and you are alone now, in that empty silent stillness. Days feel long but weeks feel short as time slips away aimlessly.
Lonely, bored and a little bit afraid; you sift through the wreckage, looking for some comfort in those old photos of your, not-too-distant, masked life. Perhaps reminiscing about the good times will lift your spirits a bit and remind you of how fun you were.
But something funny happens; not at all what you expected - you’re not IN any of the photos now. Everyone else is there, all the people and places are the same as you remember, but you don’t see yourself now. You only see the mask, floating there, next to your friends and family. There’s no sign of YOU at all. Nothing at all behind the mask.
And just like that, you realize it wasn’t you. Those memories don’t bring you any comfort now because they didn’t happen to you. They happened to the masked you. They happened around you and away from you. You COULD have been there, if it weren’t for the mask but damn, it just felt so good. That shield, you wore on your face, hid the real you from the world and kept the real world hid from you. It was a lie that was told to you AND by you, simultaneously.
“Maaaaaan, fuck that mask, it’s all a lie! I wanna live my life.” you say to yourself. Now you’ve got some wind in your sails and begin plotting a new course for your life. You step outside, look around for the first time in a long time, and the horror comes into focus. The lie is everywhere. You see people in masks on every corner, in every store and all around you. All of those lives are being buried under masks and now you’re one of the few people who can see through the lies.
So what do you do?
You’re not alone; there are others that see the lie also. Seek them out. They will be better allies than you’ve ever known.
Be on-guard, every day. There will always be a part of you that misses the mask.
Help others let go of their masks. They can’t see the problem, but that’s not their fault. Help them see, help them quit, help them get what you have; their life back. Ultimately, it really doesn’t matter how long we’ve worn the mask or why we made one in the first place. What matters is what we do with the little bit of time we have, in this life, with these people, on this earth. This is yours now.
You get what everyone gets; a chance at a lifetime.
