Fear and False Faces

"How many of us," asked Vi, "wear masks to hide our true nature?" Where to look to find the fears that must be faced? How to face the facade that fronts the fears we find? Even when we know what they are, our fears are still full of flight and fright. When we stop fleeing and turn, will we find the fear as frightening as we foresaw?

Many children are frightened by masks. This is completely understandable to me. In many ways there is nothing more frightening than someone who appears to be one thing and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are not who they pretend to be. When you discover a person is wearing a false face, you have no idea who/what you are really dealing with. Who are they truthfully? What do they want? This is incredibly, intrinsically frightening.

When it is ourselves behind the mask, it can be just as formidable. If you look in the mirror and see a mask, there is the same fear as when you see it on another’s face. Who is behind the mask? What do they want? What caused the need to put a false face between yourself and the world? And where will the courage come from to remove it?

When I was teaching Early Childhood Education I played a game with the children that rather haunts me now, when thinking of this subject. All the children would close their eyes and I would tap one on the shoulder. That child came to the front of the rug and stood behind a huge “false face” that I held up. It was a Jack-o-lantern and was so big that it completely covered the child so the other children couldn’t see them at all. The idea was for the class to determine which child was behind a huge pumpkin face, usually by figuring out who was missing from the rug. It was an exercise in critical thinking and they kids loved to do it. It is the rhyme that I invented to go with the game that echo’s a bit with larger meaning now.

Who is behind the false face?
Nobody else but me
Nobody else but me,
It is me you cannot see.
Who is behind the false face?
Wouldn’t you like to see?
Who is behind the false face?
Can you tell it’s me?
Who is behind the false face?
I don’t even show . . .
Who is behind the false face?
Maybe you’ll never know!
Who is the one concealed here
In this hidden place?
You can’t tell from looking
It’s a false, false face!