The Man in the Mirror

A friend of mine posted a picture from The Bully Project earlier today that really struck a chord with me.  Here's what she posted:

How true this is.  If we could see souls instead of bodies, what would we be looking at?

I think we would see each other in a series of bright colors - auras, if you will.  Different colors would represent different moods or attitudes, like you might find with a  mood ring.  Shades of red might indicate anger, while cooler tones would show mellowness.  Bright yellow could be happiness while shades of blue could show, well, when someone is blue.

I don't think that this is all we would see.

I'm reminded of the movie, Ghost.   When someone died, there were two light indicators that would show where they were going.  If they were going to Heaven, there would be a white light and they would be outlined by white light - all an indicator of goodness.  On the other hand, if they were bad, they were hunted by pitch black demons and pulled into a hole of empty blackness.

If we could see souls instead of bodies, would we see black and white also?  Would we see the colors swirled with shades of gray?

I think we would see not only the colors of the mood a person might be in, but also a buildup of the good and bad that person may have done in their life.

This concept is prevalent in one of my favorite books - On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony, first in the Incarnations of Immortality series.  Each book in the series represents a person thrown into the position of an immortal - Nature, War, Fate, etc.  The first book of the series, On a Pale Horse is about a man who kills Death and in turn must take the position of Death, collecting and judging souls.  When the soul is collected, it is a small orb in a shade of gray ranging from black to white.  The whiter the shade, the lighter the weight for it to float up to Heaven.  If it is closer toward black, it is heavier and sinks toward Hell.

Would we be able to see how good or bad a person is?  Would that help us to be better people, knowing that others could truly see what we have done with our lives?  It would certainly let us see the true beauty of their goodness or the ultimate ugliness of their evil.

Unfortunately, we can't see others in this way.  We can only see another person through what they show of themselves.

A great classic, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, covers this subject wonderfully.  Most people are familiar with the story.  If not, well... spoiler alert.  Dorian was a young man who took great pride in his youth and appearance.  He commissioned a painting to preserve this image of himself.  In a way, the portrait was cursed.  He kept his youth while watching his friends and family grow old and die.  He could do anything he wanted, indulging in everything from sex, drugs, partying and much worse.   He showed no physical signs of his own corruption, but this could easily be seen by looking at his portrait.  Every decision he made weighed on the life of the picture instead of his physical body, making it the visage of hideous monstrosity that would eventually be his own demise.

This is how a lot of people are.  They present a cool, collected, innocent front, but somewhere hidden in the depths of their mind is the true picture of who they truly are.  Unless a person is completely honest with themselves and others, that picture will be hidden away until they cannot deal with what it shows.

People tend to see what they want when they look at themselves.  How many times have you heard someone say, "I want the mirror they look in!"?

Far too many people lie to themselves to make themselves feel better about what they do or who they are.  Whether or not they can see what they look like to others, I don't know.  I do know that they have a certain image in which they believe.  This may be the person that they want to be, but they may not know how to be that person.  In their mind, they may think we can see them in the same way, but in reality, their actions tell a different story.

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

For many years, I did not like looking in mirrors.  I didn't like what I saw and was afraid of what I might see.  As I've gotten older, this fear hasn't completely gone away.  I have, however, found a way to control it.  I know there is just an image of myself looking back at me.  There's nothing there to be afraid of.  What I choose to see is an image of how I feel; a picture of what I see in my heart.

When I look at myself in a mirror, I see a young man in his early 20's.  I may be getting older on the outside, but this is what I see in my own soul.  While the image hasn't changed over the years, the soul of it has.  I no longer see that young man who made mistakes and bad decisions.  I've improved since those early years.  I see my heart as it is now, but the image of that soul will never die.

We may not be able to see into the souls of others, but the next time you pass a mirror, take time to think about who is looking back at you.