Shel Silverstein, Masks
A man whose desire is to be something separate from himself, to be a member of Parliament, or a successful grocer, or a prominent solicitor, or a judge, or something equally tedious, invariably succeeds in being what he wants to be. That is his punishment. Those who want a mask have to wear it.
–Oscar Wilde, De Profundis
Wanting to post something seasonal in the rundown to Halloween, I settled on masks as the subject matter. It’s the time of the year when many of us choose what mask they want to wear. It might be a monster or superhero or cartoon character or some other fantasy-based mask.
But the reality is that many of us wear masks most every day. We wear the mask of our jobs, the mask of our religion, our political party, etc. We must be careful of the mask we choose because we become identified with the mask we wear. As Oscar Wilde said: Those who want a mask have to wear it.
It could also be more than one mask. Some wear multiple masks at different times. I have worn many masks in my life, some more comfortably fitting than others. Some just didn’t fit and were tortuous to wear.
Maybe that’s the truth of the matter, that we try on many masks and if we are fortunate, we come at last across a mask that perfectly fits who we are. Or people that allow you to take down the mask and just be exactly who and what you are.
It’s a simple thought but sometimes these things are seemingly so self-evident that they get overlooked. Then we forget that we can choose the mask we wear, if we choose to wear one at all.
This was obviously a guise to share one of my favorite Shel Silverstein poems at the top. Short and sweet. Or not so sweet, actually.
Here’s a video that plays out the story in this short poem. It’s a 2014 video from a high school drama club, the Washington Drama Club. I have no idea where they are from. Maybe somewhere in Iowa? The title page states that the film won an award at the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival in 2015. Not sure.
But it’s a lovely playing out of Shel’s verse. Worth a few minutes.
Redtree Times 