No Person Can Wear One Face-Daily Meditation 12.14.22
Today’s quotation:
No person can wear one face to him- or herself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.-Nathaniel Hawthorne
Today’s Meditation:
The question of who we are to ourselves versus who we are to other people is essential. We’ve all known people who think themselves to be kind, considerate, and well-loved, never suspecting that most other people can’t stand them or their actions. We’ve seen and met people hypocritically saying they’re one thing and acting like something else. It’s not pleasant to witness this, and it does not lead to a pleasant life for people who act this way.
If we’re going to be accurate, it’s essential that we’re first of all true to ourselves and then accurate to the other people in our lives. For both of these conditions to be met, there must be congruence between the face we put on for ourselves and that we put on for others. We must make sure that we’re not lying and that we’re being truthful both to ourselves and to other people. Otherwise, we will reach a point where we’re not quite sure which person we are faithful to, for the faces we’ve presented is not of the same people.
So who are you? Are you the person who talks to a young child, the person who makes jokes with co-workers, the person who talks tenderly to his or her spouse, or the person who’s frustrated in line at the bank? If we take care, to be honest at all times, then each person will be consistently you. If we insist on playing roles and allowing our actions and thoughts to change depending on which people we’re with, then it will be tough to be sure of just which one is the true us.
We can confuse ourselves or be confirmed and never doubt who or what we are. And doesn’t it sound better to live without confusion simply because we’ve chosen to be honest always to everyone?
Questions to consider:
What different kinds of faces do you show to the world?
How do we get into the habit of showing different kinds of faces? Why do we tend to maintain the habit?
How can we develop the habit of presenting congruency in who we are at different times?
For further thought:
I have never been aware of how many faces there are. There are quantities of human beings, but there are many more faces, for each person has several.-Rainer Maria Ril
