LOOKING BEHIND THE MASK BY KILER DAVENPORT

What if you could somehow look behind the mask? Deep down into the dark places of those you encounter every day. What would you see? What if they could see you - down, dirty, naked, and bare. How would you handle that? Could you handle that? Why do we hide ourselves? Why do we pretend? Lies seem to work better. Less effort. Less confusion. Play it safe or people will run away. They do not want to know the real you.

What you see is what you get is a lie. I'm just me is a lie. No agenda is a lie. We are all on a sales mission. We put on the face. We dress up. We try to fit in. We strive to be a part of the game, the flock, the group, the fad. We have evolved into copy cats, mimicking birds of a feather, creatures of the mass habit, slaves to conformity.

It is so easy to see those who just don't fit into our little box of tricks. We avoid them like cancer. We hide ourselves from these misfits. They do not walk the same clean, comfortable, illusive path that we believe we are on. They do not fit into the mold we think we were cut from. They will not bend to the powers that be. The radical, the heretic, the hippie, the anarchist, the anti-establishment, the creative free thinker, the one with the purple hair.

This self constructed delusion. This shallow place keeps us safe for the moment. It makes us feel good, special, even enlightened. It enforces the concept of the I, the ME, the ONE AND ONLY. It fuels the fire of hate, prejudice, and self destruction.

All of the great prophets, teachers, and sages have taught to love one another, to love thy neighbor as thyself. We are our brother's keeper as hard as that may be to swallow. As impossible as that may be to understand. It is what we as a nation, as a people, as individuals must do in order to save ourselves from the not so comfortable state of sordid affairs.

It is our insatiable love of self that keeps us where we are. It is our refusal to open our eyes and see that we are interconnected, interwoven, constructed of the same material, elements, parts, and pieces. Its the illusion that pulls us off track. The we against them thinking; black vs. white; white vs. red man; white vs. muslim; straight vs. homosexual; rich vs. poor; smart vs. dumb; fat vs. skinny; and so and so on.

All of the problems we face as a nation today we caused and continue causing. We control our destiny. Our fate is in our hands. It is up to you and me to fix ourselves and the rest will take care of itself.