Take Off the Mask
Every day, you put on a mask.
It covers up your insecurities and perceived flaws.
It protects you, or at least that’s what you tell yourself.
If you take it off in public, over coffee, the person sitting across from you will notice. More importantly, they'll remember you for the rest of their day.
To paraphrase Italo Calvino, the people who move through the street are all strangers. At each encounter, they imagine a thousand things about one another.
But, no one greets each other. Eyes lock for a second, then dart away.
Never stopping.
When you take off your mask, and along with it the walls that you erect to protect yourself from the world, it gives others the permission to take off their own.
Do so by speaking freely about intimate and vulnerable moments, both in times of failure and success.
The more public the better.
