It’s truly impossible to see or know all aspects of ourselves because we can’t be impartial, kinda by definition. People and situations hold up mirrors for us so we can see who we are and the ramifications of our actions more clearly. Not perfectly, but it’s a great tool we should be…looking into. Ahem. Moving on… And all things being equal, a mirror is a mirror so each one should be showing us the same thing every time. The variable should be us. You know, good hair day or not, that kinda thing. More mirrors are good until you get so self obsessed that all you do is look in mirrors all day or you forget that the other person or the situation isn’t just about you. Moderation in all things.
But what if things aren’t equal? What if you can’t trust the mirror that you’re looking in? What if it’s a fun house mirror that twists and contorts all reflections into something other than they are? This is fun when it’s set up for entertainment. People enjoy a good laugh when they see themselves become blobs at the top of their head with a waist in the middle of their face or they become 2 ft tall or as thin as a flag pole. And by people I mean older kids and adults. We have enough perspective, enough experience and self-identity to realize that this is just for fun. It’s not real and not how others see us. Little babies who don’t have that get very weirded out or actually frightened by such things, as well they should. If you can’t tell the difference between the twisted image and the real, is it the mirror that’s wrong or is it your sense of self.
More people than you might think are walking around with fun house mirror images of themselves. They have been shown over and over again that they can’t be who they are, that they are broken in some way, and they are deficient and need to work harder than anyone else just to get over this deficiency to a level playing field with everyone else. They are shown a self which doesn’t deserve to thrive, which isn’t smart, which isn’t skilled, which has to hunker down and be practical, take on careers that are soul crushing, and hide all those accomplishments because they are worthless. They are shown that black is white, up is down, and fat is thin for so long they accept it as true. Like a child they come to understand it’s their perceptions that are warped and not the mirror. But mirrors are fragile things. They are reflective glass and easily broken. They say it’s seven years bad luck to break a mirror, perhaps that just another warping of the truth meant to protect fun house mirrors. Perhaps the luckiest thing a person can do is break the fun house mirror in a million pieces. Maybe that’s the only way it can finally start reflecting the truth.
