Imagine you’re at home, safe in bed and dreaming. In your dream, you’re on a busy city street. But instead of people, all around you are walking mirrors.
It’s as if you’re in a certain Disney film with animated furniture. Over there is an antique, ornate looking-glass, its frame adorned with gold filigree as it strides by in a stately manner. Over here is a group of young reflective surfaces made with the latest high-tech materials. And there, leaning against a wall, is an old, scuffed mirror someone threw away long ago; its surface is slightly warped, so your reflection is a bit wavy. But you can still see the emotions on your face as you feel for this discarded glass.
This scene isn’t as fantastical as you might think. Consider: all the people in the world around you are actually mirrors. This is especially true of the people closest to you. In the busy rush of modern life, we can often lose sight of ourselves. Other people can help us alleviate that self-blindness. They can enable us to take a step back and evaluate ourselves. They can help us escape warped self-perceptions and give us constructive feedback. If we keep our relationships with others well-polished, it allows us to see ourselves even more clearly.
Watch Out for Funhouse Mirrors
Of course, there are distorted mirrors in this world. These are the people who seek to fool us, for whatever reason. They want to give us a twisted view of ourselves, like funhouse mirrors. This is why it’s vital to cultivate a few good, trusted relationships, so we can find mirrors that won’t give us a warped perception of ourselves.
Breaking Mirrors is Bad Luck
We’ve all heard the old superstition that it’s not a good idea to break a mirror. If you shatter one, you’ll have seven years of bad luck. But if you break a person, it’s not only your victim that suffers. You and the rest of the world are diminished, because now there’s one less good mirror for all of us. Broken mirrors only give back a cracked reflection that further distorts the world, just like broken people can distort the world with their own bitterness and violence. It’s up to all of us to protect the mirrors around us every day, because someday you may need to see yourself clearly again.
Keep Yourself Polished
Yes, you’re a mirror too. So, it’s also important to keep yourself polished. Find yourself some Windex, whatever form that might take. What makes you feel whole and uncracked? Use that passion to shine yourself up. Be the mirror, my friend, and offer your clear reflection to the world. Together, we can give each other a better view of our shared human potential.
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Image: Pixabay
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