ARTICLE

PLEASE HEAR WHAT I'M NOT SAYING

Anonymous

Editor's Note: I first heard this read by a minister at the church service at Fantasia Fair. I've seen it elsewhere since. It is rather general in its application, not being written for TVs but it seems to be particularly applicable, so I offer it to you.

Don't be fooled by me.

Don't be fooled by the face I wear.

For I wear a mask, I wear a thousand masks, masks that I'm afraid to take off.

And none of them are me.

Pretending is an art that's second nature to me, but don't be fooled, for God's sake don't be fooled.

I give you the impression that I am secure, that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well as without.

That confidence is my name and coolness my game, that the water's calm and I'm in command.

And that I need none.

But don't believe me.

Please.

My surface may be smooth, but my surface is my mask, my varying and every concealing mask.

Beneath lies no smugness, no complacence.

Beneath it dwells the real me, in confusion and fear, in aloneness.

But I hid this, I don't want anybody to know it.

I panic at the thought of my weakness and the fear of being exposed. That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind, a nonchalant, sophisticated facade, to help me pretend, to shield me from the glance that knows.

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