Facades

Halloween

What is Halloween? In some countries it is a holiday on 31 October. You have costume parties, visit haunted attractions, play pranks and tricks, watch horror movies, share scary stories and wear monster masks. Halloween may have been influenced by old day Christians' All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day to honour the Saints and the recently departed. The American tradition of carving pumpkins was ancient and was associated with harvest.

Children donning costumes or masks would go around asking for trick or treating with trick meaning to perform some mischiefs, tell a story, etc in return for treats. People would dressed up as ghouls and witches or make themselves look like monsters even though some of us already are without even trying or wearing the costumes with special effects. Haha. 

Inevitably, all these have become commercialized. The monster masks worn by humans during Halloween is a case in point. Imagine you are at a fancy dress parade where everyone has a mask on. It is difficult to tell isn't it? Some ladies may crowd around a tall, dark and apparently handsome guy with a mask on but when he removes the mask later the ladies may go: "Eew, kena sai". That is the same as human character.

When Halloween is over and the masks removed, many humans continue to don a mask minus the horror looks - an invisible mask. It is a facade.

 

Buildings have facades too. Sometimes you may find buildings in derelict condition. Others could look new and nice from the facade but could have rotted on the inside. This is skin deep beauty. The reverse could be true - Nice from far but far from nice but when you look inside, it could be gorgeous. Just like humans.

Why do humans put on a mask? Some even have a few masks on at the same time. Have you watched any humorous Stephen Chow movie where a person ripped off his face mask to surprise the audience then later ripped off another layer of mask? 

People often do not wish to reveal too much of themselves because they will feel that revealing too much of themselves makes them vulnerable or in a weakened position. So often, it takes time for more revelation. 

However, putting on a facade, a mask or showing two faces is different from and in opposition of being sincere. You can be sincere without revealing unnecessary things. Being sincere does not weaken you or makes one more vulnerable. Besides, the obvious advantage is that you do not need to work so hard pretending. It is the same as telling a lie. When you speak the truth you don't need to remember what you said the last time.

The worse thing about pretensions is that everybody knows you are pretending but they didn't have the heart or bother enough to tell you and you may be the only one who does not understand it. How you see the world is in a way a confession of your character. In the cyber world, people do and say things unlike their real self and can become keyboard warriors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOOjM08zH5o (Two Face) 

A true gentleman does not hide behind a computer screen nor does he don a mask or have two faces. He is who he is.  What you see is what you get. You are who you say you are. Rip off that mask, tear down the facade and discover the unbridled joy of friendship which only an open and true relationship built on solid principles can offer.
Good luck!