PAPA’S ADVICE-DON’T WEAR MASK
‘Papa, you know I quit wearing mask
when I was a lot younger, unless it’s a joke or Halloween I never wear mask
anymore.’
Sorry kiddos, we all wear mask. It gets a lot easier
to not wear them as we get older, but all of you have a ways to go before ‘getting
older’ applies to you. I think part of
the problem is that we learn to wear them as little kids and like I've talked about
earlier lying and making excuses, it just becomes part of us and easy when we
need to be someone we are not.
Every kid learns
early the fun in being someone they are not.
I have never seen a child who did not enjoy wearing a mask, a costume or
something to create that feeling of being someone else. I cherish the memories of each one of you
being someone else. For a short time when
you were masking and dressing the make believe part you were that person,
whether it was Harry Potter, Superman, Bob the Builder or a Princess from a
thousand stories. I laughed, your
parents laughed and for the brief moment you were the person you wanted to
be.
Great actors
wear similar mask. They become the
character in story they are telling and portraying. Actors go to great lengths to achieve the
mask they use to convince you they are the person so important to the story
they are telling. The gain and lose
considerable weight, change their hair and eye color. They dress in costumes appropriate for the
role until the audience forgets the real person and who they really are. A successful actor fully involves his
audience in the life of the pretend person to the extent reality is lost in the
script. Again we see this so much we become
actors in our real lives and rely on mask and images that hide who we really
are and hide who we truly are from those around us.
Seems to me
one of the first things we want to hide is the fact we are really a good
person. Our desire to be ‘like’ everyone
else drives us to masking the real person we are in order to ‘fit-in’ better,
be more like the crowd, not comfortable with what we know to be good and
right. I have always thought this is one
of the primary reasons for using vulgar and profane language. As I entered my teen years I wanted to be
like those I thought had it all together and figured out. Those kids were older, and I felt wiser, so
if they cursed I wanted them to think I was just a cool as them, therefore I
should mask who I really was and cuss. I
wore that bad guy mask in many situations as I matured. I wanted those around me to think I was cool
so when an older person would refer to his mother as his ‘old lady’, I got
behind my mask and always outside my mom or dad’s hearing I would refer to my
fantastic parents as my ‘old lady’ and ‘old man’. I was fairly bright as a student but since
the majority of those around me made average grades I put on my ‘average guy’
mask and prove to those I knew that I was not very smart but just average. As I have gotten older I wonder if everyone
was not doing the same thing and as a group we were not really a bunch of
pretty smart folks just masking ourselves to fit a role we perceived to be
cooler.
What really
haunts me today is the mask I wore until really later in my life where I wore
the mask hiding the fact I really wanted to be a decent person. I didn’t necessarily want to be known as
someone who was trying to live like I knew I should. I never denied my religious beliefs but sure
never did a very good job promoting them to others. I never wanted anyone to know there were some
things I just would not do or other good things I’d rather do. If a friend wanted to play golf on Sunday
(and who doesn’t want to play golf anytime), I would easily slip into my mask hiding
the real me, who knew I should be in church.
If I met someone new in my circle of friends, I knew I should invite to
worship, out would come the mask hiding the Papa who knew he should ask them to
church, to ask if they wanted to play golf on Sunday morning.
I never used
to mask to do anything criminal or extremely bad I just used it to avoid doing
what I really knew to be right. We all
are guilty of this masking to some extent.
Whether it is a matter of not having the nerve to be a little different
or a desire to be something we are not, we all remember how we could tie towel
around our necks and be ‘Superman’.
I mentioned
getting older and it becoming easier to avoid the mask now. It is not easier; I think I have just figured out how to explain in a way I better understand. It is so much better to be genuine; your
parents have a lot of experience and have taught you well. You access to great schools and churches, you
are very smart and know what is right at even a young age. Be the people you have been taught to
be. The person who is the leader, the
one others look up to and admire because you know who you are and are true to yourself. What you are is plenty if you have applied
yourself. You don’t have to be like
everybody else. If you believe in doing
right, do it and be an example. If you
believe in Christ and his message, then let people know and don’t hide it, this
message has lasted over 2000 years, and it’s nothing to shy away from. If you are smart don’t hide it, don’t flaunt
it like cheap perfume but wear it with dignity so others can aspire to take
more pride in their gifts.
There are
many ‘mask’ we all wear. You are a child
of God, made in his image; you really don’t need a ‘mask’.
