If the world were full of mirrors, everyone shielded behind one, hiding behind a mirror, all anyone would see would be themselves. You could only see yourself, your qualities, your flaws. Some people become vain. And some people inflict self-hate on themselves. Maybe then people would self-reflect more. But that isn’t the world.
If the world were full of transparent glass, everyone looking right through the glass and seeing each other, we would see others, think of others first. Maybe then people would care for someone who isn’t I or me for once. But that isn’t the world either.
The world is a maze full of mirrors and glass, cracked, shattered, dirty, and maybe smothered to dust. We’re trapped in this maze, lost. Maybe we’re only a few steps from the exit. Maybe we’re hundreds of feet away. We’re too lost in our own worlds. Our own smaller mazes of cracked mirrors and cloudy glass.
These mirrors might show you who you are or they might completely alter your shape, warping how you look, like those mirrors in the glass maze of the carnival fair. You might see a fatter, taller, shorter, skinnier version of yourself. But that isn’t you. Who are you, really? No, not your name, not whatever defines you. Who are you? Who is that thing that you think of when you say “I”? Are you thinking of your name? Your job? Your hobbies? Your status? Or are you thinking of that unexplainable existence that is who you are? So next time you look in a mirror, don’t look at the person, the flesh, skin, and bones you see. Look at you. You without your face, your name, your age, your status. Look at yourself. Do you see something new? Do you see something other than the person with these ranks and social status and number of followers, amount of viewers, number of friends, IQ, salary, do you see you? Do you see your kindness? Or lack of it in some cases? Do you see courage? Do you see strength, determination, moxie? Do you see ambition, guilt, joy? Do you see hatred, sorrow? Do you see someone who has flaws and yet is someone to be proud of? So mirrors tell us nothing. Nothing. Mirrors show nothing more than a reflection. And what is a reflection? Just a trick of the light.
The glass surrounding us are often smeared with dirt and cracked in places, hiding away the whole you. Sometimes, the glass is covered with enough to make it opaque.
When you look past the mirrors of yourself and past the glass covering others, when you break the glass, the mirror, and brush away the dust and see people for who they are, just who they are, you will know them better than that reflection or that image. You will know the human being hiding under the mask they’ve been wearing for so long they forget what was, is, underneath.
People… are layers and layers of secrets. — Veronica Roth
But we don’t have to be. We don’t have to keep hiding under translucent glass, too afraid of what others will make of our reflections. We don’t have to be behind mirrors, glass, and dust. We can just be us.
We can just be.
