The Japanese have a saying...
You have 3 faces.
The First Face, you show to the world.
The Second Face, you show to your close friends and your family.
The Third Face, you never show anyone. It is the truest reflection of who you are.
I've been thinking a lot about this saying over the past couple of weeks especially as I've been looking at the current state of our country and our world at this time.
That has made me ask myself many times what is the real agenda of people today?
Is it any different than it's always been?
Have people always had the same motives and agendas deep down and maybe now we are just seeing more of it because of the society and the world we live in today?
Or...
Are people evolving and changing to fit what the world has become?
To be completely honest with you I'm not sure if I have the complete answer to these questions, but I do want to share some of my thoughts with you.
As far as the first face is concerned.
I think we see this every day. Any social media platform you might be on, any news channel you watch, any interaction you have with someone you always see this face.
This is the face that usually smiles and agrees with you and says things like "I totally agree with you", "I know right.", "I hear what you're saying and I agree with you 100%", and the list goes on.
This is what I commonly think of as the agreeable and let's keep the peace face.
Or maybe, we can just call it the Politically Correct face to use a term we've been beaten over the head with till we finally accepted it as a thing.
The second face.
This is the one we show our friends and our families.
This I like to call it is the "Let down your hair" face.
This is the face where you can have your own opinions about things and can express them.
Let me be clear that when I say you can express your opinions as you see fit that doesn't mean that you and your thoughts won't be met by some opposition.
Just because they are your close friends and family doesn't mean that they will always agree with you or even have the same views as you, but this is a more controlled environment in which to express your opinions.
Also don't think that you can't alienate or even lose close friends or family over your strongly held opinions on things. Because you can and people have it happen all of the time so keep that in mind.
The third and final face.
This is what you don't show to anyone.
When I think about this face two things came to mind.
First was Carl Jung when he talks about his thoughts and works on what he called our "Shadow". If you'd like more information on that here is a link so you can do some extra research on your own if you're interested in that.
The second was the famous line from the Batman movies when the Joker says:
"What do you do at night when you sit all alone in the dark and the demons come..."
Do we ever really know what is going on in another person's mind?
Do we ever really know the things they've been through in their life?
We only ever really know but two faces of the people we meet.
Very rarely in life do we ever get to see the third face of someone.
With this being said I find it interesting that in today's world most people are blurring the second and first face together and there doesn't seem to be any real distinction between the two anymore.
Do you think this will have any long-term damaging effects on people?
Do you think we were given three faces for a reason?
Last but not least, do you think there is any value in having three faces anymore in our world today? Or should the second and first face be blended together and the third face just be left hidden in our shadows?
Let me know your thoughts.
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