As a preschool teacher, I have to dress up in a costume on Halloween. As a preschool teacher, I don’t wear a mask with my costume on Halloween. Why not? Because the little ones I teach would freak out if their teacher appeared as someone different! A mask would hide my familiar face, and preschoolers need to see a familiar face when they come to school. Not wearing a mask is fine with me; it’s hard to breathe or see with a mask on. Wearing a mask makes me all claustrophobic.

Masks can also give you a sense of freedom, however. I’ve always wanted to go to a masquerade ball. The movies always make it look so romantic. To dance with a partner who wears a mask, have him fall in love with you, and then he turns out to be the prince. *sigh*

A figurative mask can be also freeing. Take a mask like this blog, for instance. When I began it, I thought I was invisible behind my blog and my fake name. I could write whatever I wanted and no one would know it was me. I once wrote a post about someone who wasn’t playing nice. I told the story in my favor, of course. I was in the right and she was in the wrong.

This mask of mine, however, proved to be weak. Too many people knew that I wrote this blog. Terrified that this person would somehow stumble onto my blog, I deleted the post. As far as I know, she never read my words, but I became scared of hurting someone if I wrote my feelings publicly. Sometimes I write whole blog posts in my head but never write them down just for that reason. And that, my friends, can make my blog quite safe and boring when I hide my true opinions. That’s a mask of a different kind, isn’t it?

Masks are complicated, more complicated than they seem at first. Do you wear a mask?

Take a look at some of the great posts about masks that these wonderful bloggers have written!

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