Masks (Pt 1)

It’s October, time for the ghouls and goblins, or is it now school shooters and terrorists, the new monsters? Anyway, it’s time for kids to don disguises and legitimately hold their neighborhoods hostage with threats of toilet paper, raw eggs, and flaming bags of poop. Their demand? Raw, bouncing-off-the-walls, sugar-loaded, fat-gaining candy.

When I was a child, Halloween was practically a holiday for me. I remember clearly not paying much attention to school work, but thinking about donning my Spiderman or Superman costume and going out to get as much loot as possible. I remember wearing that plastic mask with the white rubber band that always broke after the first 10 minutes of wearing it. I remember the sharp nostril holes cutting into my face, along with the pools of breath sweat lining the mouth and nose. Come to think of it, the mask was probably the worst part of the Halloween experience, but hey, it’s all part of the job. You don’t want people to recognize you as the one who always rings the doorbell and leaves, right?

Masks. My very first spiritual experience had to do with masks. At the time, I thought it was a very deep and philosophical topic. How did I know, it’s a favorite topic among all Christian themes, right up there with “stepping out of your comfort zone”. Anyway, this was back in High School, and I never went to any type of Christian conference before. So the theme was masks, which at first blush, I thought was a pretty stupid topic. But then the priests trotted up one high schooler after another who then talked about the masks they wear, and how they had to “hide” their true inner self. Then I was like, “Ohhh, I get it now.” And of course, throughout the year, during retreats or other “spiritual” times, people would share, and inevitably they’d bring up “Masks” as if to show the teachers, “Hey I remember crap!” Don’t you hate that when other people try to repeat the catchphrase of that year just to show their “on board” or part of the “bandwagon” or “with it”.

Not looking at it too deeply, it seems like an awesome and admirable goal. Let your mask down, and have your true self shine. Sounds admirable huh? No need to lie about ourselves, but just act truthfully. And then there’s that whole trust issue, where if two people are in a trusting relationship (I’m talking in general sense, not just boy-girl, but even two close friends) they should let down their masks and, I dunno, hug and cry, I suppose. I don’t do that; I like my masks, thank you very much.