The Many Ways We Present Ourselves

If we were always the same to everyone, would it be possible to be intimate with anyone?

This reminds me of the most dreaded English teacher in my high school, Mrs. Massey, who treated everyone with a very false-seeming facade. I believe it allowed her to keep a great distance between herself and the students, never becoming attached to any of us. It was really disturbing. I clearly remember her saying to someone, with a smile, that it was OK that this student had failed the test or whatever because then they would get to take the class again next year. And I have no idea if she was being facetious or if she really meant it! It was hard to imagine Mrs. Massey being warm and personal in any situation.

It's all masks, it's all facades. Layers and layers, stretching back infinitely.

I like to think of this scene from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It was one of those ones with the coyote and the sheepdog, who fight all day but are friends outside of work.

One of the coyote's schemes was to put on a sheepdog costume. He thereby succeeds in capturing a sheep, which turns out to be the sheepdog in a sheep costume. The two of them then take turns peeling off one disguise after another until it turns out that what we originally thought was a sheep was really a stick of lit dynamite.

Just so, it gets dangerous to probe too deeply into the masks we all wear everyday, I figure.

I love that sheepdog. He was sooo cool.

you guys are so smart! those are two really good ways to think about how people are. and i loved that sheep dog too!

i have to say i really admire someone who can truly be themselves no matter what the situation. i guess it's all depends on the depth of the relationship as to what degree they reveal that true self.