The Man in the Mirror

The flat plane that is one-dimensional reflection of yourself when you look in the mirror is exactly that- a one dimensional representation of a much more complex being. And because it displays only what it is presented with, you choose what to displays. Your appearance. There are the parts that you cannot change and then there's everything else you can manipulate. Trust me- have you seen some females before and after the magical consultation with the mirror?

This sense of image and of who we are...it is maybe 45 percent who we think we are and 55 percent who others THINK we are. They may be other way round depending on just who you are and what your self-concept or level of confidence is. I just made those numbers up but unfortunately though, in this age of Facebook and YouTube, it has maybe become 90 percent of what others think of you. In order to always get the best possible appraisal, we seek ways to manipulate, as I said before, the image we present of ourselves to control our "rep." We all do it- molding ourselves to the crowd that we're with; it's just the way the world works.

A Facebook comment is sent all over before you even finish checking your notifications! I’m sure we've all heard the comment at one time of "don’t take a pic of me- I already have pics of this outfit up on Facebook." Oh lord forbid, you wear the same outfit twice! I think I should invest in a disposable clothing line since it only makes sense to wear an outfit once- ah, the possibilities are limitless...

But back to this reality- what prompted this post was the murder of an 18-year-old guy by his 16-yr old former best friend. They had swapped insults on Facebook where the victim called the other a “p***y.” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/london/10372678.stm). To the 16 year old, he absolutely had to prove to everyone else that he was not a p***y and his solution was to stab his former best friend. So where do we draw the line?

Obviously, this guy went too far. I can think of it in the way that the insult to his image penetrated much deeper past the surface. And it is for that reason he made the decision to manipulate his image- by taking a life. The bottom line to this post is that I think we need to decrease the exclusive attention we are giving to the surface to the detriment to the interior.