Yesterday I walked into the past and took a look around, saw everything I remembered from masks to costumes to props, things people use to expose their true selves. I hadn't been in this store for at least fifteen years, but I saw it from the road and decided that I had to go inside. Four times the size of the one I remembered, it had changed locations, but not mood. It was creepy as all get-out then, creepy as all get-out now. My sister and I perused the various rooms. You could be anything, someone sexy or scary, depending on your needs or someone else's. Why, as a friend once wrote to me, limit yourself to one identity?
As for the store in the past, I loved going in there as a child every Halloween with my friend Melissa and her mother. Her mother bought us something we wanted each Halloween, and we'd spend hours deciding what that thing would be. My favorite was a mask of a hanged man -- we saw it one year, decided it was too scary, and then came back the next year, ready to get it. The mask looked so real that it still scares me to think of it. If you put it on, you'd looked as if you hanged yourself, right down to the realistic noose and rope burns. Melissa and I both wore it from time to time and agreed that it was hard to not feel the rope around your neck for a long time after removing it.
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"Myths have staying power." Ray Bradbury
Cocktail Hour
Drinking novel suggestion: Mysterious Skin Scott Heim
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Saturday!
Fifteen days until The Sopranos airs!
14 comments:
"Why limit yourself...to one identity?" The cosmic brilliance of this question transports me to other dimensions of time and space.
Spray me with your assault weapon, If you know what I mean.
I know the feeling of the rope thing from the Sopranos. Tony wouldn't let me move to Florida. He wanted me to stay in the "family." So I hanged myself.
How does one assume an identity not their own? For as long as I can remember I have been no one but me. Kind of dull huh?
Man becomes aware of the sacred because it manifests itsef, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane. To designate the "act of manifestation" of the sacred, we have proposed the term "hierophany." It is a fitting term, because it does not imply anything further; it expresses no more than is implicit in its etymological content, i.e., that something sacred shows itself to us. It could be said the the history of religions--from the most primitive to the most highly developed--is constituted by a great number of hierophanies--e.g. manifestation of the sacred in some ordinary object, a stone or a tree--to the supreme heirophany(which, for a Christian, is the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ) there is no solution of continuity. In each case we are confronted by the same mysterious act--the manifestation of something of a wholly different order, a reality that does not belong to our world, in objects that are an integral part of our natural "profane" world.
Perhaps a question for the walking man is how can someone assume their own identity? If one has lived a large amount of their life assuming the identity of what was expected or available to them, it is indeed a trying and tedious task when an 'awakening' is achieved. The desire to find one's self is often hampered by the numerous levels of false identities which have acumulated over the years.
Role playing can sometimes be dangerous, very very dangerous ... especially if there are two or more people involved. I hope that's not a loaded weapon, Michelle. Be careful, very very careful.
Anonymous said...
Perhaps a question for the walking man is how can someone assume their own identity? If one has lived a large amount of their life assuming the identity of what was expected or available to them, it is indeed a trying and tedious task when an 'awakening' is achieved. The desire to find one's self is often hampered by the numerous levels of false identities which have acumulated over the years.
I have never assumed "what was expected of me" I have alway simply been what I am and what I need to be in the moment. At times the meanest biggest loudest dog on the block and at other times the most giving and geneous soul on the planet without expectation of return.
I have grown to realization of self by being what I am and walkig with the only being that I have ever called Master and my Master accepts no falsity of self, only to stand and be what the reality of the moment calls for. Like all people I am multifaceted but I never wear masks, what you see is what I am.
have had a goddamn life and I have lived every moment of it without any subterfuge or intentional false hood. Like I said pretty boring huh?
RockinMama
CajunQueen
SeixestthingIeverseen
FoxlyLadyDay
WithTheQuickshootin
AK
R2C2!
If the rifle is loaded it makes it a lot more exciting. Rock on!
Wonderful. It's fun to let go of the entrapments of our everyday existence to peruse our true desires. I've been well aware of my several identifies for years, the trick is to keep them all in check and from getting jealous of each other.
Walking man, I salute your discovery and acceptance of your self. Unlike yourself I 'was' the puppy whimpering in the corner. In no way should a loud dog be considered boring. On the contrary, you know what you are and accept it, perhaps unconditionally? I admire that. It seems from your posts that you accept the face you wear and make no bones about what you are. I like that. I've been reading this blog for several months now and between Michelle and the 'Big Dog' I've enjoyed making this my first post. Perhaps my bark is about to be heard.
beautiful picture as always my dear. Hey Cheri and I are going to write for the MCC school paper that is trying to get off the ground. When you come back from sabaticle hows bout being our faculty advisor?!?!?! Have a smashing weekend!
Hiding behind masks is cool. As an adult I have realized I can hide behind a behavior, no mask required. Nice post, as usual.
Sexy jean shorts. And you wear them well!
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