NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Once Said…
“NO MAN, For Any Considerable Time, Can Wear One Face To Himself And Another To The Multitude Without Finally Getting Bewildered As To Which May Be The True.”
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE ((1804–1864))
*** *** ***
Yeah.
Now, Tell Me This Quote Wasn’t Written For Me.
Not For Me Alone, No, But Totally For Me In General.
It Gets Right At The Heart Of What I’ve Been Trying To Talk About The Past Few Days.
We Lie To Ourselves So Much.
We Convince Ourselves We’re Not Good Enough…
…Not Fast Enough…
…Not Strong Enough…
…Not Attractive Enough…
…And We Do So At A Break-Neck-Pace.
Suddenly, A Life That Really Wasn’t So Bad Becomes A Living Hell.
Through No One’s Fault But Our Own, We Do This.
We Beat Ourselves Down.
Down To The Ground.
We Take What Good We Do Have Going For Us, And We Tarnish It.
We Do This All The Time.
The Big Question Is…
…As Always…
…WHY?!?!?
Does Anyone Have A Decent Answer?
Anyone??
ANYONE???
I Didn’t Think So.
Honestly…
…I Don’t Have A Decent Answer, Either.
I Wish I Did.
I Sincerely Wish I Did.
There Are Some Whom Believe I Lead A Charmed Existence.
And Then, There Are Some Whom I Couldn’t Give My Life To.
Some May Think It So Vile.
Some May Think It Amazingly Wonderful.
We’re All Different.
Different Wants.
Different Needs.
Different Tastes.
All Of Us.
You.
Me.
Us.
Again, I Ask WHY?!?
Is This Simply How It Goes?
Is This How Life Goes??
Is This All That I Am???
Is There Nothing More???
I Simply Don’t Know, My Peeps.
I Wish I Did, But Know I (likely) Never Will.
Which Face Am I Wearing Now?
Which Face Shall I Wear Later?
Does It Honestly Change With The Entrance Of Each New Person Into Our Day?
Which Face Are They Wearing?
Once You Start Thinking About It, You Can Almost Make Yourself Sick.
I Don’t Like The Thought.
I Don’t Like Having To Even Ponder This At All.
I’m Already Wracked With So Much Self-Doubt.
Now, I Can’t Stop Thinking About ME And Then The “ME” Whom The Rest Of The World Is Allowed To See.
They’re Very Different Creatures, Fo SHO, My Peeps.
I’m Very Guilty Of This.
Sadly…
…I Suspect You Are, Also.
Sooo…
…What Do We Do, Now?
Where Do We Go From Here??
I Suppose We Just Carry-On As We Always Do.
I’ll Be ME…
…You’ll Be YOU…
…I’ll Show You “ME“…
…You’ll Show Me “YOU“…
…And We’ll All Make Sure We Appear To Be That Which We Are Not.
Such Is Life???
So Goes Life???
Shit.
Now I Have A Headache.
"You Jivin' Me, Turkey?" 
Well said. The questioning of it all is something we need to do, all the time.
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Totally. We’re Very Much On The Same Page. 🙂
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Wow this strikes a chord for me today. Prolly always, but really really today. I remember this factoid from Psyche 101 (back inna day) We have a presenting self–that which we show the world, a perceived self–how we believe the world sees us, and an actual self–the person hiding between the lines of this post.
Another bit o’ wisdon: how you are on the inside, eventually comes to show on the outside (or) it all comes out in the wash. Even if we don’t want it to.
Very thought provoking, B.
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If It’s Thought Provoking, Then I Have Succeeded In My Efforts 😉
I’m Glad You Like It.
And You’re Very Correct.
In The End, It All Comes Out. Whether We Want It To, Or Not.
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Why? I dunno. Because we’re always hardest on ourselves and through external components are taught that we can never actually be ourselves because society as a whole is too big on “image” as opposed to “actual self”? Thought provoking indeed, B.
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You’re Very Correct, Ms. Missy. Society Does Tend To Care More About “Image” Than “Actual Self” And That’s A Very Sad Truth.
I’m Glad It Intrigued You. I’m Still Mulling-It-Over-And-Over.
It’s Hard To Switch-Off Once One Is Switched-On, Ya Know?!
-B.
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It seems to me that you’re asking the right questions, bro.
You ask about putting on a new face for different people (I’m sort of paraphrasing), and that’s a consequence of not having a solid foundation.
Knowing who you are and what you stand for, and believing in your mission and loving yourself (that always sounds so touchy-feely and new age; I could have said “believing yourself to be a cool dude”) helps to strengthen your core so that you are able to remain whole in the face of adversity and strife. If you know where you’re going, it’s hard to be sidetracked.
An example from nature might be a puddle and a rock. The puddle is like the person who doesn’t know or believe himself. If a hand (crisis) slaps that puddle, the water goes everywhere in a chaotic fashion. If that same hand slaps the rock, the rock remains unchanged, only the hand hurts.
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I’ll Give You This, Dude, You Speak Quality Metaphor 😉
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