Wearing the Mask

It was the funniest conversation. It happened a little piece back, and names have been omitted to cut back on unpaid advertisement, about this person saying to another person, “you need to wear the mask.” ―Meaning, play the game. Pretend. Go Along. Wrap your emotions around both wrists and walk around with the poker face.

Meanwhile, the same person, in almost the same breath, began surfing around how much they dislike—no― actually that was, HATE dishonesty.

Now wait... let me break here, because this does get confusing.

There are social rules about when, and when not to wear the mask. This isn’t always case-closed clear, since no one (that I’m aware of) has ever stood up and said, “hey, I made up that rule, and here’s why.”

These rules just sort of show up, and a bunch of us start following them, leaving a vast amount of others, especially those who have never played poker a day in their lives, confused. And just to note: I’ve never played poker, so I, for one, usually am always hunting around for my mask.

At any rate, and as best I can, will share...as it pertains to reading, writing, and reviewing other books not written by me, when and when not to wear the mask. And by the way, this post was inspired by a post on Beverly Diehl's Writing in Flow blogspot. So many thoughts came to me as I read the post, Being Honest, or Career Suicide? ...that I almost left this post in the comment section. This, also by the way, is a prime reason for why spelling out some of the 'masks’ rules' are necessary.

Reading Books generally doesn’t require that a mask be worn. Unless you’re reading in public, and making strange faces and whatnot, or doing like I often do, laughing hysterically at what I’m reading, you should be able to get away with keeping your feelings to yourself as you read.

Reviewing Books is another matter, and for that matter, so is leaving comments here and there. This one gets tricky as some outsiders...those reading reviews you’ve written, or blog comments you've left here and there, will get to supposing and determining if you were wearing a mask as you wrote the review. Or, how much of the mask you should, or shouldn’t have been wearing as you left your comment.

All I have to say on the above is this.

Don’t let others sucker you into pulling off your mask to write ‘all of your’ God’s gospel truths about a book you’ve read, or a comment you may want to post. Many times back in the day I used to want to walk up to my father and say something like, “all, shut up dad, you don’t know nothing!’ But let me say this, I was always dreaming when I was thinking these thoughts.

In other words, I try to be sincere, without being disrespectful.

And as for Writing Books, I think I’ve made my position pretty clear. This is absolutely, and unequivocally, the one time when masks SHOULD NOT be worn. There is no reason, whatsoever, to pen NOVELS that readers will not feel, hear, see, think about, or remember long after the book is closed. It’s like handing someone a gift card with a zero balance and saying, “Well, I was afraid they would use it and get mad with me because wasn’t enough money on it.”

The point here is; what is the point?