Q Day 8 - Mask

Mask

"Who was that masked man?"

(Lone Ranger (Radio program--1960-1970).

I lay, unmasked, unclothed on the Queen-sized bed in the room in West Mersea writing this. It's 6am.

On leaving this harbouring room I mask-up, done a paper mask, blue on the outside, white inner. There is thin elastic attached to the mask which bites into flesh where the auricle is attached to my head. If, like on the flight between Singapore and London, I wear a mask for a lengthy period that ear/head space becomes sore.

Because of the Covid 19 pandemic and its inherent dangers we are all learning to cope with small discomforts. Mask included. However, some people wear a mask of a different type, theirs is internal, and rendered external only by their learned control of facial features and control of speech.

Those are the narcissistic types who become very adept at showing the world their mask, while hiding their true self where few can see. You see them on social media living in their perfect worlds, where all is happiness and sunshine. They produce endless vanity and false smiles for the world to see, turning this way and that, as If paid to model their features for a world they believe is waiting and watching.

In their homes are numerous images of themselves, retouched photographs obscuring blemishes, in frames large and small, on pianos, tables, walls. Painted self portraits and those produced by others to celebrate their beauty. They are beyond the eccentricities of egoism, beyond natural pride and self esteem and have fallen into belief systems in which they deny others through incessant self promotion.

Society now is be-masked, but able to remove their masks in their homes. Narcissists cling to their masks, for that is their self-deluded reality with their excessive need for admiration. That which appears in selfies as confidence and being self assured is the opposite, it is insecurity and inner emptiness.   

Being narcissistic affects how the individual copes with life, how they manage relationships, how they behave, and how they feel towards themselves and others. Narcissists are good at creating flattering self-images, attractive confidence and lofty dreams as masks, like 'The Phantom of the Opera' (written by Gaston Leroux) hiding his born disfigurement yet, at its extreme, Narcissism is a delusional Personality Disorder.

Today is serious, sorry.