I like Pictures

A lot of random stuff and a few pictures I've taken from time to time. I hope you enjoy some of it! ~ : )
elledark: MasksOscar Wilde said .. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.  Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” It’s an interesting thought (and thanks for that quote to my favorite wayward spirit ..:)) )We all wear them, most of the time, don’t we ? The mask of the responsible businessman to hide the boy inside wishing he was out in the sunshine, the mask of the ‘public-spirited politician’ that covers venality and greed, the mask that hides depression or anxiety, the mask of those trapped in a decaying relationship, the mask that gets us through the day and lets us function.Oh I know people proudly assert that they’re always ‘themselves’ and are ‘truthful’ about how they feel and who they really are but I don’t believe a word of it. Everything I see contradicts this but, for me, people wearing a variety of masks to get through the day is really not a problem because it’s never been any different and I can’t see society functioning any other way.One real danger of wearing a mask, though, is the reality gap. If your mask is widely different from how you are underneath and you have to keep it on over a lengthy period of time, maybe years, then watch out. Wearing masks always takes effort but where that effort is too great and for too long, something has to give. People fall into that reality gap all the time and get hurt by it.Of course nowhere are ‘masks’ more easily worn than on the internet. It’s often very hard to know who’s who and what’s what. I was talking just the other night to someone, a ‘persona’,  who I’m sure was really another person that I know well ‘in disguise’. Little things gave them away. Which brings me to a truth about masks online, in a place where truth is always an elusive commodity.Whatever mask anyone wears it’s impossible, I think, to disguise who you really are in the long run. Oh you can convince anyone of anything in the short term but everything we write and say tells something about us, often unintentionally. If a visible mask is removed the chances are there will be other masks under it but, if you are perceptive enough and pay attention to what the person is saying, you can sometimes understand the greater truth of what is behind them all.In fact a mask will sometimes reveal far more than it conceals.

elledark:

Masks

Oscar Wilde said .. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.  Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” It’s an interesting thought (and thanks for that quote to my favorite wayward spirit ..:)) )

We all wear them, most of the time, don’t we ? The mask of the responsible businessman to hide the boy inside wishing he was out in the sunshine, the mask of the ‘public-spirited politician’ that covers venality and greed, the mask that hides depression or anxiety, the mask of those trapped in a decaying relationship, the mask that gets us through the day and lets us function.

Oh I know people proudly assert that they’re always ‘themselves’ and are ‘truthful’ about how they feel and who they really are but I don’t believe a word of it. Everything I see contradicts this but, for me, people wearing a variety of masks to get through the day is really not a problem because it’s never been any different and I can’t see society functioning any other way.

One real danger of wearing a mask, though, is the reality gap. If your mask is widely different from how you are underneath and you have to keep it on over a lengthy period of time, maybe years, then watch out. Wearing masks always takes effort but where that effort is too great and for too long, something has to give. People fall into that reality gap all the time and get hurt by it.

Of course nowhere are ‘masks’ more easily worn than on the internet. It’s often very hard to know who’s who and what’s what. I was talking just the other night to someone, a ‘persona’,  who I’m sure was really another person that I know well ‘in disguise’. Little things gave them away. Which brings me to a truth about masks online, in a place where truth is always an elusive commodity.

Whatever mask anyone wears it’s impossible, I think, to disguise who you really are in the long run. Oh you can convince anyone of anything in the short term but everything we write and say tells something about us, often unintentionally. If a visible mask is removed the chances are there will be other masks under it but, if you are perceptive enough and pay attention to what the person is saying, you can sometimes understand the greater truth of what is behind them all.

In fact a mask will sometimes reveal far more than it conceals.

(via llacigart)

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  9. jjones186 said: respect the mask…..
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  12. ybb55 said: Nice piece Elle. Right on the mark… Who lurks beneath your mask?
  13. elledark posted this