Are we really what we seem?
There's a famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe called A Dream Within A Dream.
You may have heard the familiar line from it...
All that we see or seem. Is but a dream within a dream.
I think some people are exactly the people that they seem to be. Other people, though, hide their true persona behind some kind of mask. Sometimes it takes a long time to figure out who is wearing a mask and who isn't.
Source: Pixabay.com
Today a giant monster truck pulled up in front of my restaurant. It was purple and red with a line drawn across the bumper which read Road Hog.
This truck was so tall, that in order to reach the handles to open the door, you would have to be about 6 feet. I have never seen a monster truck as big as this one, and I have no idea why someone would use it as their everyday vehicle.
I waited to see who got out of the truck. It was a giant guy who could easily have worked as a lumberjack. His beard was shaved down so that it covered his face like a red veil. The bottom half of his white tee was torn off showing his rippling abs. His bulging biceps were covered in tats. In fact, his entire arms were.
My first thought, seeing the truck and the man, was that he was some kind of a poser. Who puts this much effort into being manly?
Of course the outfit was incomplete until the passenger got out. An absolutely gorgeous young lady.
Her long brown hair fell perfectly across her round buttocks. Her tiny waist was only accentuated by her oversized artificial breasts.
With great effort she climbed down and looked up at the man as though he was about to spout some kind of incredible wisdom. Instead he just lit a cigarette, leaned back, and took a long drag.
One thought came to mind.
"You for real dude?"
I mean, c'mon man.
What kind of crap is this?
Maybe this guy is living exactly the kind of life that he dreamed of when he was a child. Maybe he always dreamed of having a giant monster truck, and a beautiful girlfriend. Hell.... we'd all love a girlfriend that looked like that. At least part time.
Still, I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that this guy was really the monster truck driving, tat armed, super ripped, manly man that he was pushing on the world.
Maybe he's a scholar?
Maybe he's some rich guy that is able to pull off all the youthful dreams that he had once because he has an unlimited source of money. That would explain a lot of it.
Whatever it is.... it really got me thinking.
About Edgar Allan Poe.
About masks.
About life in general.
And about the question....
Are we really what we seem?
"Are we really what we seem?"
I like what Walt Whitman said in "Song of Myself," in which he claimed he was many things, even contradictory things.
He said: "I am large, I contain multitudes."
For me, it is not so much that people wear masks to disguise who they are, but that people change from year to year, from day to day, from hour to hour. We are all many things, children, siblings, humans, 60 percent water, upbeat, downbeat, ambitious, fearful, optimistic, pessimistic, cynical, idealistic, indoorsy, outdoorsy, slothful, energetic, we are all so many things, it's impossible to define us, impossible to contain us.
It's freeing to realize how much we all are, how impossible to contain. It's incredible. :)
I definitely think we're all contradictions. Each of us is many different people.... all at once even.
To the question in your title, my Magic 8-Ball says:
Hi! I'm a bot, and this answer was posted automatically. Check this post out for more information.
Huh. Well then.
Hello @jeezzle, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!