We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile
And mouth with myriad subtleties,
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
~Paul Laurence Dunbar
It is really interesting what you find when you go looking for quotes and poems about masks. It is something I do with regularity…searching for what has been said or written about a particular subject that gets stuck in my head. Some of these discovered words can affirm my own thought process. Others confound. Still others challenge and bring me up short.
For more than a year, we have added a mask to our daily act of getting dressed. At first it was so odd and felt so confining. But like most things, over time, it became second nature. Now I sometimes realize that I am in my car, completely alone, or walking down the street with no one around and I have forgotten to take off my mask off. From my observation, I am not alone in this.
Some people now have masks that match what they are wearing for the day. Others carry messages. A friend has one that says “Mom”. She realized if she wore it upside down is says “Wow”. Pretty fun. Some carry in words a cause they are passionate about and tell those they meet what the wearer values. Without the mask, we might never know that about a particular person. Informative. And then there are those masks festooned with sequins for lace or special occasions.Creative. Fun.
Now and then while wearing these face coverings, I have wondered what we will do when it becomes unnecessary to wear them to protect others and ourselves against this virus that has brought our world to a screeching halt. Will there be backyard parties with bonfires that include a ritual of mask burning? I have thought about what it would be like to create art using them…framed remembrances of the masks we wore in a year we will recall again and again…quilts sewn with different colors and fabrics that got us through the last months. It would bring new meaning to ‘crazy quilt’. Will we decorate with them, pack them away to remember this time?
In my internet sleuthing, I found the words written over time about masks are often literal and metaphor, pointing us toward a deeper meaning, a wiser truth. As the poem above written by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Mr. Dunbar (1857-1906) was an African American son of former enslaved parents. He was a bright student in his Dayton, Ohio school but did not have the financial means that allowed him to go to college. Instead, he became an elevator operator which, he said, gave him time for his great love…writing poetry. He later became known as America’s first published Black poet. You can find out more about him at the Poetry Foundation. It is fascinating.
I imagine Mr. Dunbar knew much about wearing masks. The kind of masks required of him to stay true to his gift of writing in a world that denied him access to much we take for granted is something I cannot even try to understand. My mask of privilege will not allow it. And yet his words find a place within each of us. In 2020-21 we have worn literal masks but the masks we have placed upon our faces to keep people from knowing the fullness of our ‘torn and bleeding hearts’ is something all humans experience. This past year with all its losses has offered many opportunities to hide behind our cloth and skin masks. Perhaps in that way, these now common coverings have been a blessing that goes beyond our caring for one another.
But as the masks come off for us all, which they eventually will, how will we look at one another with great compassion for the unseen masks that we all wear? May the next year find us standing more fully in the gift that has been given each of us with no need to hide any of it. May we welcome each we meet with the care and kindness we want so deeply for ourselves. May it prepare us for an unmasking that brings both joy and hope to the whole world.