The Woman With A Thousand Masks

Once upon a time, there was a woman with a thousand masks. But she was unhappy.

Everyone in her homeland wore them, intricately carved and shaped with the latest trends. Like many girls, she received her first mask when she was but 3 years old, to protect her from the dirt and mud of the earth. Now, as a grown woman, she had collected many over her lifetime, each promised to bring her joy, happiness, and fulfillment. Each time she wore a new mask, she became all the more stunning and beloved by her neighbors and friends.

But no matter which one she wore, or which new one she obtained, she was unhappy.

For years she sought out and tried on new masks, desperate to find the mask, the perfect one, the one that would bring her joy, happiness, and fulfillment, and make her beautiful. Like many girls, she learned early on to never show her true face, her true nature, for it was hideous and frightened people.

One day, she found the most beautiful and ornate mask she had ever seen. It made her family gasp with awe and her neighbors sigh with jealousy. Surely this was the mask that she had longed for, the one that would bring her true happiness.

She took it home with her and removed her old mask. Then, she lifted her new beautiful mask out of the box. But as she put it on, the mask slipped from her fingers. Horrified, she watched it fall and cried out, “No!”

But it was too late. The beautiful mask shattered on the floor.

The woman fell to her knees and wept. This was it, it was the mask, the one that would fill her with joy. And now, she had no other mask that could even compare to its beauty. How was she to hide her hideous face from the world now?

Her tears fell upon the broken pieces of the mask, and suddenly her home was filled with glittering light. Stunned, the woman looked at the pieces more closely and discovered what cast light a thousandfold across the room. Inside the mask was a mirror.

The woman ran to her closet and pulled out each and every one of her thousand masks to examine. Sure enough, in each and every one was a mirror. She had never noticed the mirrors before. All she noticed was the way men watched her walk by and how woman’s eyes followed her when she wore the mask.

As she gazed at her reflection, a broken image on the pieces of a broken mask, the woman gasped. She marveled at her wrinkles, at the tiny sun spots dotting her cheeks, at the scars snaking across her chin. She wasn’t hideous or frightening like her family and friends warned her. She was beautiful.

Then the woman became angry. The fury was hot and fiery, and in this rage, the woman grabbed the closest mask and threw it against the floor. It too shattered into a thousand pieces. One by one, the woman broke each and every mask upon the ground, until none remained. As the last mask shattered, her fury evaporated. The woman stood alone in the sea of fragmented mirrors and held herself in a warm, loving hug. She knew what she had to do now to be happy, to feel joy, to be free.

At first, the village pointed and scoffed at her for daring to show her true face. They screamed at her, jeered and jested, told her of the shame she should feel. But the woman remembered what it felt like to see herself, her true self, in the thousand broken mirrors, and she persisted. She refused new masks from her family and smiled at her neighbor’s fear and rage. For she finally knew herself and she was beautiful.

One morning, the woman heard something break in her neighbor’s house. She went to the neighbor’s home, worried that something terrible had happened. The neighbor greeted her at the door, and she too was without a mask. The women marveled at each other’s raw beauty etched in every imperfection, then embraced one another as sisters.

Together they walked through the village, ready to face the fear and anger that awaited them. For they know that more masks would soon break that day, and every day after that, until every man, woman, and child in their homeland was happy and beautiful, exactly as they are.

Once upon a time, there was a woman with a thousand broken masks, and she was free.

Written July 2023