Masks

I am thoroughly enjoying my Guidance and Counselling class. My tutor is dear young lady bursting with infectious energy and enthusiasm to share her knowledge with us. And she does so with her sweet simplicity, so much so that she makes it seem as though the module is really easy!

What I like most about the sessions so far is that she shares with us a little poem at the end of the lesson, so that what we have learnt gets driven into our heads better. For the first lesson, she shared with hus this poem called "Masks: An Epilogue". This is how it goes...

MASKS: AN EPILOGUE

Don’t be fooled by the face I wear, for I wear a thousand masks,
And none of them are me.
Don’t be fooled, for God’s sake, don’t be fooled.

I give you the impression that I’m secure, that confidence is my name and
Coolness is my game,
And that I need no one. But don’t believe me.

Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in aloneness, in fear.
That is why I create a mask to hide behind, to shield me from the glance
That knows, but such a glance is precisely my salvation.

That is, if it’s followed by acceptance, if it’s followed by love.
It’s the only thing that can liberate me from my own self-built prison walls.
I’m afraid that deep down I’m nothing and that I’m just no good,
And that you will see this and reject me.

And so begins the parade of masks. Idle chatter to you…
I tell you everything, that’s really nothing, and
Nothing of what’s everything, of what’s crying within me.

Please listen carefully and try to hear what I’m saying.
I’d really like to be genuine and spontaneous, and ME.
But you’ve got to help me. You’ve got to hold out your hand.

Each time you’re kind and gentle, and encouraging,
Each time you try to understand because you really care,
My heart begins to grow wings, very feeble wings, but wings.

With your sensitivity and sympathy, and your power of understanding,
You alone can release me from my shallow world of uncertainty.
It will not be easy for you. The nearer you approach me,
The blinder I may strike back.

But love I’m told is stronger than strong walls,
And in this lies my hope, my only hope.
Please try to beat down these walls with firm hands,
But gentle hands, for a child is very sensitive.

Who am I, you may wonder, I am every man you meet, and
Also every woman that you meet, and I am YOU, also.

Author Unknown

I guess what it teaches us is that anyone we meet, the people we interact with, and perhaps more so with the students I am to teach in the future - all of them (and us, in fact) will at one time or other don a mask - a mask to hide our true inner self. I can empathise deeply with the author. I myself have had my fair share of masks. I change these masks ever so often to suit the occasion, to suit who I am with, and only when I am most comfortable with someone, do I reveal my true self.

What it has taught me is that, what we see in the outer shell of someone, may just be a mask we see. Do we take the time, do we have the patience? Do we ever take notice, and hear the helpless cry of the real person behind these masks? Think about it when we next meet someone. Do we take the time and effort, to hear the inner cry, to realise the real person behind the mask?