As a rule, a large part of the population loves carnival, and we all like to put on a mask or even two during the holidays of this party, we like to pretend to be something that we are not at a certain time of year, escape the skin of another character and find ourselves in other facets of reality and fantasy.
However, we do not realize that outside carnival we usually wear a mask to cover ourselves with others or even ourselves, others see that we are an image that stands out when we are in public, for fear of being alone or simply following certain social norms, we hide behind costumes, in which we can work more or less.
- Of course.
- A mask is a disguise: an object that hides our true face and varies our physical appearance.
- So.
- Metaphorically.
- A mask is also a way to cover one’s personality and make it look like the identity we have is different from the real one.
One of the most common unconscious causes of presenting ourselves to others as something we are not is the fear of not being respected, loved or accepted: it is normal to pretend lightly, just as it is normal that honesty is not complete because we feel more protected when we see that we are what is expected of us.
Hiding is a first human reaction that arises from the fear of being judged, as we said before: we can be rude not to feel vulnerable, they may consider that we are attending a funeral for pure diplomacy, we can behave well because we do not. we want to lose our job, etc.
The following message from Calderón de la Barca leads us to the statement of this subtitle: we strive to pretend and yet we do not worry about trying to accept who we really are and improve it, it seems much easier to lie and not be natural, to move in superficiality.
This leads us to create an environment in which appearances are more important than real feelings: we get carried away by prejudices, images and assumptions, so it is beneficial to learn to take off your mask and look further when you are face to face.
The best way to take our mask off is to get to know each other and give our own essence a chance: so we can introduce ourselves to the people around us without tricks, with our own magic, we will be happier away from unfounded exaggerations. and illusions, because we will give every single thing and every person the place he deserves in our lives.
Faced with all the initial predictions, the mask that we thought we were sure sooner or later falls off or begins to have holes, exposing the whole truth of our essence. This is what happens to many people: the mask exposes them, because time ends up showing its true face.
That is, the more we work the costume, the more it looks like us, as José Saramago taught us, the danger of this nuance is that we not only deceive others, but also ourselves: relationships are built through sincerity and trust, and pretending to be who we are does not automatically eliminate both virtues.
It certainly happened more than once that we thought we knew someone and that person let us down and, for some reason, it’s no longer what we thought. features that she had tried to hide.