Halloween:
- a time when we put on masks and pretend to be someone else. Some
of us put on scary masks and pretend to be bad; some of us put on
gentle or inviting masks and pretend to be good.
What
a lesson for life. Don't we do that all the time? Isn't every day a
Halloween? Don't we put on a mask ever day.... every minute of every
day?
When we see an attractive person and feel that rise of attraction; what do we
do? We search through our bag of masks, pick a mask that we think is
attractive and we try to impress.
I
visit kids in juvenile detention. Not nice kids. At least they
didn't look nice to the neighbor whose lawn was destroyed or to the
kid on the losing lend of the fight, or to the parents of the kid
that got a start down the road to addiction. In detention,
sometimes, it's OK (almost safe) to remove the mask. Sometimes I get
to see the real kid underneath. Sometimes I get to see the kid whose
brother sold drugs, the kid whose sister overdosed, the kid whose
adoptive family doesn't want her anymore. Sometimes I get to see the
hurt and hurting person behind the mask. Sometimes I get to see the
joyful and loving person behind the mask. Sometimes I get to see the
tears. Sometimes I get to see the smiles and hear the laughter.
In juvenile detention, when
the masks come off we talk. We talk about compliments. I give each
a compliment and they give each other compliments. Sometime I hear,
"I've never heard that before" and, inside, I cry.
When
the masks come off we get to see that there is only one. And your
one is the same as my one and there is connection. I love my job,
sometimes.
By
Ed Kozeny
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