A DAILY MESSAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 4 May 1929, Page 5

A DAILY MESSAGE

UNMASK! A few days ago wo read in our newspapers of the appearance of a masked stranger. His advent had excited much interest and comment; tho mystery was in the mask. Yet there is nothing uncommon in meeting a masked stranger. How many of our friends are masked! Some are quite unconscious ,of 'the fact. Others mask in order to be in line with the prevailing mode; some mask to conceal themselves; others because 'the mask they adopt shows what they would like to be, and have not the strength to become. But certain' it is that it is more unusual to meet an unmasked friend or stranger than a masked one. - 1 1 : People who wear masks .always fondly imagine that the mask covers them completely from all eyes and . for all., time. T No mask will do that, and no wearer is skilled enough in the control.of the ■ real self to keep this mask in position all the time. It slips, it falls; we ..get ~, tired of holding it; or some great emo-' tion (if we are capable of ’one after a lifetime behind a mask) sweeps over us, and it is then that the‘mask'fAlls': We get a peep at the real self behind the mask, whether good or bad, strong or weak, big or little, great or small, and it is infinitely more precious than the counterfeit pretender of the mask. Do you remember your sensation when the mask slipped off and uncovered a friend, and, for the first time, you saw a living human soul behind the mask you Jiad known and talked to —perhaps worked and lived with for so'long? In a flash you realized that, although the mask may' have hidden much that is ugly, it had much that was beautiful, too. Although it may have hidden much that is petty, it covered up, also, much that was big and great. We can pretend too long, and there are times when we wake up too late. We pretended so long that the real self has abdicated in favour of the pretender; and it takes a mighty big struggle to, put the real self back in command. So, back goes the mask, nnd we play in the shallows of life to the end; we have pretended too-long. What would happen if the army of perpetual maskers were to throw off their masks to-day, as the maskers at a ball throw off theirs at midnight, and were to think the thoughts they wanted- to think, say the things they waned to sav, do the things they wanted to do, tell the story of their real selves? What a flutter there would be! What a real thrill for the world! What a relief the maskers would experience, and . .. « wouldn’t it be interesting? \ . . - Let 'off ourMasks* Lefcour •’* friends and the world see us, and know us, as we are. Let them get a glimmer of the self behind the mask I The real man or woman is bigger than the pretender—all the time. Let us unmask! —M. PRESTON STANLEY.