Diary Of A Peculiar Soul: We Wear The Mask...

Sunday, January 02, 2005

We Wear The Mask...

Paul Laurence Dunbar put it nicely in his poem...

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.



As far as my musical tastes, I consider myslef a "Granola Chic". I am a big fan of "neo-soul" artists such as Me'Shell NdegeOcello, Dwele, Angie Stone, Tangible Truth, Floetry, Erykah Badu, Kem, Fertile Ground, Stephanie Renee, Jill Scott, India Aire, John Legend. The list could go on forever. I mention this because on the flip my alter ego... Ms. Audacity loves her some hip hop (read: Jay Z with a sprinklin' of other artist).

I have been blasting Jay Z's latest release titled Collision Course for the last few days. He collabed with Linkin Park and put out an awesome release. If you haven't heard of it don't be surprised. I happen to be channel surfing and landed on MTV2. What I saw stopped me in my tracks. Jay was on stage with with Linkin effin' Park! I couldn't believe it... Jay was rockin' it out WITHOUT an entourage'. A novel idea if I ever heard of one especially in Hip Hop.

Oddly enough it got me to thinking about love. And love ALWAYS leads me to truth. I know… You are wondering WTH?!?!?!?! How can you get that out of a blend of hip hop and rock. You'd be surprised as to how my mind really works. Remember I’m a peculiar individual. I don’t follow the norm with most things.

"When I pretend everything is what I want it to be I look exactly like what you always wanted to see When I pretend, I can't forget about the criminal I am Stealing second after second just cause I know I can but I can't pretend this is the way it'll stay I'm just Trying to bend the truth I can't pretend I'm who you want me to be, so I'm Lying my way from…" Jay Z/Linkin (Park Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Lying From You)

We wear masks in the various areas of our lives. Where we pretend to be all the things that are expected of us. You know what I'm talking about. The one you wear for your family (mine is always the dependable good girl, daughter, sisiter, auntie... you get the point). Then there are the ones you wear at work. The mask you have for your supervisor and upper management as the hard working employee always smiling and agreeable, the one for your coworkers, and then the one for your close friend at work... You see where I'm going?


If you had to pick one "mask" to wear permantely which would you choose... Do you think that it would be your true self (what ever that means)? Or... do you think that it would would be denying who the many facets of you...

Just pondering things that are floating in my head...



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Stop skippin your remedial class. It’s the finals you gonna need it to pass. Keep my name out ‘cha mouth and your mind on ya task. If you feel that I’m talking about you in these bars, Pick up ya feelins’ grab ya kicks and walk that shyt off… ~ Mos Def

Have You Checked Out The Latest Woot Item?


Check Me Out On Yahoo Yahoo! 360 !!!