Masks

Someone asked how my husband and I met.

When I met my husband, I was conducting a personal social experiment. We both worked in a retail service establishment, a custom framing shop, and I wanted to see how people treated me if I changed how I looked. So I took a month off from wearing any hint of makeup. It may seem trivial, but it was a daring change for me at the time, to be in public in the raw.

Some people did treat me differently; women seemed friendlier, and men less attentive. I don’t know if my looks or how I interacted with people in an exposed state caused the change, but maybe I perceived them differently because I saw myself through the eyes of vulnerability. I do know one thing. I learned the personality shines regardless of your appearance because the human heart transcends the physical. In time, I simply forgot I didn’t have my mask on!

We are all getting older every day. Someday the young ones now will be old, and the old will be gone, and it happens a lot faster than ever imagined. In a society that treasures temporal aesthetics, it is never too early or late to learn to treat each other with kindness, dignity, and respect. Anything else can be like a dagger to the spirit of an already insecure soul.

My husband passed the test.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” — 2 Corinthians 4:16