What Masks Do You Wear?

I was listening to an interview recently on Starpower Collective. It is a great radio show in which the listeners are the DJs. People submit a playlist and then are selected to be interviewed. Every Wednesday, from 9pm – 11pm ET, you can hear the interview and playlist of 2 listeners. This evening during the 2^nd hour, a woman named Shon Dixon was being interviewed. Since it was my daily “mommy time,” she had my full attention. I was listening and cleaning my kitchen, the kids were in bed. A quiet peaceful time before I planned to retire with a book in hand and read myself to sleep. I digress.

Well Shon shared intimately about a rough period in her life when her smiles were not a true reflection of her inner joy. She talked about how she got herself through that tough period and how and when she finally started really smiling. I connected to her and remembered this poem, learned in 3^rd grade.

We Wear the Mask

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

WE wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask!

I too have smiled through some painful times but with transparency. That was my choice. When asked how I was doing I would often say, “Dying with a smile on my face.” I felt that I needed to tell people how I really felt. I felt that a part of my healing is to share openly. It helps me know that I am not alone and lets others know they are not alone. Unbeknown to me at the time, this simple practice of mine allowed people give me a wide berth or step in to support me. I respected their choice either way. I still feel this way.

What masks do you wear? And why? Does it serve you? What would happen if you dropped your mask? As I stated in a previous blog, “There is a lightness of being, when you simply are who you are 100% of the time.”

INjoy,

dionne