Well done! I like the idea of embracing the mask. In fact, many of my most fulfilling experiences involve not putting myself forward but fulfilling a role of service towards others: my children, older parents, and students. Sartre thought being for another destroyed authenticity. He was wrong. Thank you for sharing this essay.
Thank you! I'm glad it resonated with you. Sartre, bless him, was enamored with the weight of existential solitude, but he failed to see that in donning these masks—these roles of parent, mentor, or student—we are not abandoning ourselves. We are, rather, stepping into a form of authenticity that transcends the self. Service, after all, is an act of creation. It is a ritual, a deliberate bending of the self to something greater, richer, and infinitely deeper.
You have my gratitude for reflecting this truth so elegantly. Perhaps, the mask is not a hindrance to authenticity but its most vivid articulation. 🧐
That's what I call a perfect and ordinary instance. We are all, in a sense, a collection of selves, each one carefully curated for the different people and places we encounter. It’s as though we are actors, playing different roles to match the stage we’re on. And yet, all these versions are still somehow "us", aren’t they?
Well done! I like the idea of embracing the mask. In fact, many of my most fulfilling experiences involve not putting myself forward but fulfilling a role of service towards others: my children, older parents, and students. Sartre thought being for another destroyed authenticity. He was wrong. Thank you for sharing this essay.
Thank you! I'm glad it resonated with you. Sartre, bless him, was enamored with the weight of existential solitude, but he failed to see that in donning these masks—these roles of parent, mentor, or student—we are not abandoning ourselves. We are, rather, stepping into a form of authenticity that transcends the self. Service, after all, is an act of creation. It is a ritual, a deliberate bending of the self to something greater, richer, and infinitely deeper.
You have my gratitude for reflecting this truth so elegantly. Perhaps, the mask is not a hindrance to authenticity but its most vivid articulation. 🧐
I wake up and greet my wife as her husband.
I walk by someone on my way to work and I present my street self.
I show up at work and to my manager I present my employee self, to my fellow employees my co-worker self, and to my buddy my humorous self.
Etc.
That's what I call a perfect and ordinary instance. We are all, in a sense, a collection of selves, each one carefully curated for the different people and places we encounter. It’s as though we are actors, playing different roles to match the stage we’re on. And yet, all these versions are still somehow "us", aren’t they?
Yes, I am me in every case.