Masks

“We are all wearing masks. That’s what makes us interesting. There are stories about the masks and the people we are underneath them”

~Neil Gaiman

This quote got stuck in my head and it is also the cover picture on my Facebook and my twitter accounts. Masks protect us from the necessity to talk and to mingle. When wearing a mask, you have a chance to let just a portion of yourself participate in a conversation, while the rest of your mind is occupied with killing dragons and rescuing princesses.

I wear a mask too. Apart from my parents, only three people have seen beyond that mask to the real me. I like it that way. I’m not an extrovert, unless it’s with people I am totally comfortable with and my mask lets me be able to interact with the other people in the world in peace.

Then there are those people around whom I can totally be who I am, without having to apologize for it and I am extremely grateful to them for accepting me as I am, as opposed to making demands from me to be this, smile here, cry there and so on and so forth.

Is it easy to wear a mask? Yes it is. The world outside sometimes demands you wear a mask. It’s your only defense against it. A mask gives you mystery. It lets you reveal just  enough so that you tell the person there is more to you under the mask. The question is, will the other person be brave enough to take that plunge and see 

what I am without a mask?

I wonder about this sometimes. My personality is not one which everyone can attune their personalities to, so in truth I am actually extroverted, but selectively so. I do not talk very much, unless it’s with people I am comfy with. I prefer to observe people in a room and maybe go and say “Hello” to one or two. I have the gift of the gab so most people end up liking the version of myself I project.

And as I said at the beginning of this writeup, only three or four people have seen me without my mask. Thankfully, they are not judgmental and are very good friends

Now answer me this- do you have a mask too?

The Bilge Master