CREATING THE FIRST MASK

Can you imagine

What creating the first mask was like?

Of course make-up was nothing new.

People were already smearing

Colored pigment on their lips and cheeks

And around their eyes,

But you could still tell who was who.

Until one night,

Maybe around a campfire,

One of their number

(The first mask maker)

Taking advantage of the dark,

Slyly retrieved a carven curl of bark

Shaped to look like a nonhuman face,

Slipped it on,

And abruptly stood up.

Wow!

What happened to the person they knew?

What should they do?

Most screamed and ran and hid,

But a loyal few

Turned fear into audacity

And attacked the monster to save the maker

Who was terrified by their response

And barely survived his rescue,

The mask knocked away

As he was knocked down.

A peaceful people with each other,

They had almost killed their brother.

Bad magic all the way around!

The first mask

Probably scared the hell out of everyone.

THE GAME OF MASKS

The game of masks is played

Accrding to a simple set of rules

Most children know.

"Hide and Seek" they call it, calling:

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

Hide and Seek.

Why do grown-ups

Continue to play the game?

Because the hidden side of us

That fears discovery

Wants never to be fully understood

By ourselves or others.

Then why seek?

Because the mystery is irresistable.

The seeking side of us

Is driven toward discovery by curiosity,

Adventure, the sense of quest,

And a vain hope that truth,

Finally arrived at,

Shall set us free.

By playing Hide and Seek

We confront our ignorance:

All masks mask the unknown.

And a lifetime dedicated to peeling back

The many masks of our concealment

Barely penetrates at all.