The Age of Masks with Few Eyes

The Age of Masks with Few Eyes

by Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

We live in an age of masks. My masks were gifted to me by my ancestors - very old masks, cracking a bit from age. It took me a long time to carve out the eyes so I could see through the mask. I look in the mirror and I see my eyes looking back through the holes I have carved. That is how I know that the mask is still in place. When there were no holes I thought I was the mask.

False faces are worn to hide what is real. Where do we ever get such crazy ideas that we must hide what is real? A story I like is that our parents place these false faces on us when we are babies sleeping. We tear them off as soon as we wake but after awhile they start to feel comfortable and we forget to take them off. Then finally we don't even notice that they are there.

These false faces make our parents happy! They want us to be one of them - to belong to the false face society. Native people had such societies formalized in their culture to remind them not to accept such faces that rob us of our authenticity and uniqueness. But our culture condones their use, even demands it. So not many of us escape but some have carved out the eyes and even fewer have learned to take off the masks.

I have had my masks off for some time now. Only occasionally do I discover that they have been placed back on my face. What do I look like without the masks? It is hard to describe but the best I can do is that it is nothing and everything at the same time. It is interesting to observe how without the masks I am a clear mirror for many things that others see of themselves in me. Do they see me? Well it might be better to say that they feel me, for without my mask there is no hiding and my presence must be felt.

I felt safe with my masks on, but with no hole to look through, I had no real vision, and with no real vision one begins to die. Carving out those eye holes brought vision back into my life, like fresh air to one who is suffocating. What possessed me to begin carving? There was nothing else to do but die and I knew there must be more than what I was seeing. The first thing that those holes allowed me to see was myself. When I began to see what was real in myself, I could begin to see what was real in the world - and what was not. The more I looked for what was real, the thinner the masks became until finally they just cracked and fell off. What freedom to be without them again! Of course I no longer fit in, but that was fine because I saw that fitting in can never be real anyway.

We live in an age of masks with few eyes. It is hard to have the courage to take off those masks we believe keep us safe, but unless we take them off, we will just wither away beneath them. Each story we tell about who we are and what we believe is a mask. Living without story is real.

What masks do you still wear? Do they have eyes? Do you dare to take them off and live fully and authentically without them?

Do your masks have eyes?
Can you see what is real?
Do you love it all?

If you have comments on these articles or ideas for future topics, call Linda Heron Wind at (585) 924-5620 or send e-mail to LHWind@aol.com.

Page last modified August 28, 2004 by RMC