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Masks! Because it's Mardi Gras... belatedly.




Tonight, on campus, there will be a Mardi Gras masquerade ball thingy mabob! It's a day late, of course, but who the hell cares? I've never really participated in any sort of Mardi Gras festivity before, so this should be awesome. And as we all know, part of Mardi Gras is masks.

Masks are an interesting phenomenon. Depending on the holiday or the occasion, masks can be simple tools to enhance or alter one's appearance for purely aesthetic entertainment reasons. Is your face not ghoulish enough to pass as a ghoul? Buy a mask! Is your skin not rotten enough to pass as a zombie? Buy a mask!

But there are times in our lives that we wear other masks. Emotional masks and mental masks that hide our inner being and protect it from exposure to the cruel world.

We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin. --André Berthiaume

We fear, as humans, being so utterly exposed to others that we rarely allow people close enough to know all of our secrets. We all have opinions or feelings that aren't popular and that are not in agreement with the broader societal thought on the matter. And we all, at some point or another, have acted in a way that is completely anathema to what we truly are, but did it because we thought someone would like us better for it.

It happens. But we must be careful that the mask that hides our true self does not become so much a part of us that we forget who we are.

Masks provide a safe haven. They provide a barrier between the truth of yourself and the wild, untamed beast of the world and its expectations. Take care, my friends, to find as many opportunities as possible to remove your mask and keep it off. Surround yourself with those that comfort you, make you feel as though there is nothing to be ashamed of.

People who cause you to wear masks are not your friends. People who force you to be anything other than who you are, they are not your friends. And if someday, you find yourself incapable of removing your mask without tearing away a part of your own being, that person has directly contributed to your destruction of self.

Be yourself. Let no one tell you you must be anything other than what you are.

Wear a mask only when absolutely necessary. Or when you want to look like Predator.

Here's to hoping you had a fantastic Mardi Gras!

Au revoir.

20 Responses so far.

  1. Sadly, in the World we live in no one is good enough as he is, how could he, just look at the images of perfection that we have come to realize as the norm, that's why we all need to wear masks.

  2. Unknown says:

    "People who cause you to wear masks are not your friends."
    so true

  3. Evan says:

    Hope you have fun! Im honestly suprised you're not on spring break

  4. LunaSihne says:

    Haha. Nicely written.

  5. Unknown says:

    Mask? I thought Mardi Gras was about boobs and beads. There's masks too?

  6. You don't want people to see who you are when you're getting buck wild, do you? Haha.

    Evan, Spring Break is next week, and I did have fun. Thank you!

  7. i spent my mardi gras surfin the web :P

  8. Sam says:

    Nice quote, very true!

  9. Mardi Gras should only count if you're fasting for Lent. Otherwise, why are you binging? To score easy girls?

    Oh wait.

  10. I guess Charlie Sheen tore off his mask rather violently then, and we all see how that went..

  11. Patti D. says:

    very true words, enjoy your mardi gras too.

  12. noone says:

    i want to look like predator :(

  13. Don't worry anon, Predator away!

  14. rinns says:

    Really great post.

    "We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin"
    That one hit close to home.
    I really enjoyed reading this, thank you :)

  15. Alphabeta says:

    You made me think of "I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is."
    ...and indeed the whole character V in relation to your post.

  16. Thanks, Rinns. Glad it meant something to you. :)

  17. Very insightful thoughts. Thanks!

  18. Unknown says:

    Mardi Gras looks so fun... I wanna go sometime.

  19. Mike says:

    wow man have lost of funny! you are one lucky dude!

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