Mask

If by “mask” we might mean that social aspect and external face, a suite of nuanced expressions (or affectations) and behavioural skill set we wear to show the world (i.e. others) our location on some spectrum ranging from compliance, neutrality through defiance; and, if in that assertion of self we find some façade or bulwark behind which to rest, what happens when we find that we no longer require this fabricated self-representation, when there is no longer anywhere (or anyone) to hide ? A mask might gift freedom and participatory belonging in some ways but in other ways it is just as much a prison within which we hide from the world (and ourselves) that this surface and superficial form we fabricate is always already more for others than it ever could have been purely for ourselves.