The Human Behind the Mask | Catherine Viel

By Catherine Viel, May 28, 2021

(Golden Age of Gaia)

May 27, 2021

Masquerade! Every face a different shade…
Masquerade! Look around—there’s another mask behind you!
~ Andrew Lloyd Webber, Masquerade

What do masks signify? I deduce that, for religious or ceremonial purposes, the meanings are complex and arcane.

What do masks signify if we wear them even when those who demand this bizarre behavior can’t logically or scientifically rationalize it?

I don’t think ever in the history of Earth has such a massively deployed ritualistic badge been foisted upon the entire populace. Billions of people, while out and about with their fellow humans, are routinely acquiescing to what their rulers have told them is healthy for them and necessary for the common good.



I can only assume that these obedient citizens believe what the so-called public health authorities tell them, and haven’t looked further than the six-o’clock news and their social media sources for directives.

Other than refuse to wear a mask myself, I’m not sure there’s anything I can “do” about what I see as a heartbreaking level of uncritical compliance to supremely unhealthy mask mandates.

Although…it occurs to me there is one more thing that I can do. And that is to remind myself: behind that mask is an eternal and serene soul who has chosen to be here on Earth at this very moment.

And for that soul’s experiencing, they have chosen to mask their face and have probably been doing so for more than a year. Maybe for their job, maybe just to get along with others.

But far beneath those apparent reasons, surely their soul is still calling the shots.

I chant the mantra to myself: stop judging, stop judging, stop judging.

*****

Once again I am the only maskless customer in Trader Joe’s. I push myself up from floor level where I’ve been choosing baked goods from the bottom shelf, and realize there is a woman patiently waiting for me.

“Oh, sorry,” I said contritely, “I didn’t realize you were there.”

“That’s okay, no problem…”

“It’s hard getting up off the floor,” I remarked.

“Really? Gosh, I could’ve helped you with that.”

“Thanks…it’s okay.”

I glanced at her as I walked away, smiling my appreciation. I could tell she was smiling, too, because I could see her cheeks wrinkled upwardly above her mask, and the corners of her eyes crinkled. Kind brown eyes in an almost-middle-aged face.



Only as an afterthought did I truly register that she was wearing the unnecessary mask. I thought: huh. I didn’t really notice that she was wearing a mask. I noticed the kindness she was radiating.

The basic goodness of humanity can’t be smothered by a mask. And our basic similarities, our usually unacknowledged soul connections, can’t be severed by a piece of cloth or paper plastered across our mouths and noses.

Humans are inherently kind, and I don’t believe any amount of psychological battering, political and medical establishment lies, ruinous “safety” directives, and toxic vaccines, is going to eradicate that kindness.

Or so I believe.

I walked up to the register with the tune from the Phantom of the Opera classic, “Masquerade,” soaring through my head.

This I know: There are no monsters beneath those masks, not even the Phantom. Just a broken heart, wanting to be healed.

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day. ~ A.A. Milne