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How much of our lives are spent staring at our reflection? Who is this semi-stranger at whom we gaze - hatefully, longingly, with awe or disdain? For how many humans is it a mere passing gaze to ensure there’s nothing in our teeth? And for how many others is it a time-consuming obsession with self? And let’s not even delve into the selfie trend, the outcropping of that infernal, entrapment machine - the mobile phone.
Shall we reimagine our lives without the need for coverups, fix-ups, fancy trappings, or outward artifice required to face our every waking moment? By 1:09 pm today I estimate I’d looked at my reflection 7 times already. I wonder why. Conditioning?
What does the universe require of us except to maintain the physical vessel for our soul in good working order until our lives here are finished? I would argue that those requirements are met through food, movement, meditation, and rest. Just who started this reflection-addiction, which subjugates the care and feeding of our very souls to someone else’s definition of proper outward packaging?
Well, according to the National Institutes of Health, mirrored surfaces made of polished obsidian were found in Anatolia (modern day Turkey) dating back 8,000 years *, suspected to have been used for corrective lenses. Mirrors for grooming were used by Greeks in 5th century BCE but the modern silvered glass was invented by Justus bin Liebig in 1835.
What was all the fuss about? It was about self. Rather than part of a larger group, humans were suddenly able to see and identify themselves as unique. Although scientists believe that recognition of the individual, the self, is critical to human development, shouldn’t the focus be inward toward the soul instead of outward to a reflection of physical appearance or chasing self-actualization?
The spark, the light, the power of you and me and all the billions of people on earth originates in our souls. My son recently said “Souls have power. People will protect and fight for their soul, for self-actualization. People work in an office all day to earn money to buy things they don’t care about instead of doing what’s in their soul.” This is the core of humanity, not how we look in the mirror or worse yet, how we feel when we see what’s staring back at us.
I remember the scene from the 2009 movie Avatar about the tree of voices. How they “plugged into” the voices of their ancestors - sharing, and in some ways, thinking as one. We aren’t meant for isolation, for self or for self-reflection. What if we had no mirrors? What if we took back those precious minutes of every day and became present in the presence of others? What if we developed our other senses more - taste smell touch sound - not only person to person but person to pet, person to nature, person to God or other spiritual guide? Let’s go outside, rain or shine, in our bare feet touching earth. Why don’t we observe EVERYTHING without judging? How much love would result?
How different would our lives be if clothing were only for utility and comfort, a basic uniform not required to outwardly please anyone. What if our spaces received the attention previously dedicated to looking at ourselves? How lovely, maybe breathtaking our gardens would be. How much more natural and authentic our lives and our very auras would be.
I wonder if we could detox from self-reflection, disconnect from appearance, and gaze more deeply into the eyes of our loved ones. Or, are we afraid of what we’d see looking back at us? That they themselves are already the byproduct of us - the true reflection, our very own living portrait of Dorian Gray.
Spreading the word helps me develop more content.