The Mask In the Mirror

This month’s Indieweb Carnival is on “Masks, Identities & Cosplay” and this post is a response to the prompt “I invite you to consider what masks and cosplay mean and how they interact with identity, for you.” The Mask In the Mirror I don’t have many mirrors in my house. It never occurred to me to have a bunch, a simple one in the bathroom and a longer one somewhere to see outfits seems plenty to me. My teenaged daughter disagrees. One reason not to have them is they make me uncomfortable. Not in a “I don’t like the way I look” way. But because they startle me. Or can, they don’t always. It’s when I’m not expecting to see myself and I catch a glimpse of me anyway. The person looking back is me. Just unrecognizable. A stranger’s face meeting my eyes. Eerie. I know this is not a common experience. It’s a byproduct of a trait that has shaped me. From childhood I was never sure who I was looking at unless I knew them really well or they stayed in the same context (a teacher in their…