One of your biggest and most terrible surprises in life probably comes when the masks of someone you thought you knew very intimately come off and you’re confronted with a complete stranger.
That happens, and happens a lot. Believe me it wouldn’t be an experience you would like to relive when the going gets tough and you want some respite to think about things other than the financial and other troubles you find yourself in. Many times the masks come off on those of us who have been acting like we’re the real angels of Planet Earth minus the wings and without us being around this world would really have a hard time. We display that despicable arrogance towards others who have no reason to wear the invisible masks and go about life as their real selves.
Somewhat we seem to be in times when most of us go about life with our many layered masks …on. It seems being oneself is not that nice these days. Or maybe being oneself doesn’t take you across many bridges and you have to reinvent yourself.
But asks come off; and many times they do so in times when you least expected and in circumstances that give you away for what you are.
I just called to say I love you
Taking evasive action
Take so-called activists over one cause or another. If you’ve watched those people closely they seem to have come of the same conveyer belt as the way they try to get your attention, the way they try to tell the world that they are the smartest souls on earth, the way they prime to go all the way to have their ideas accepted by the public are very similar. In fact many times than not even their vocabulary so similar sometimes you think there must be some way these people share their scripts.
In the place I used to reside until about a year or so back there was this fortyish man who got the attention of many by the way he acts and the way he moves around with that grace of a ballet dancer, movement who leaves you no chance but to conclude, “This guy must have had a lots of hours perfecting these movements.
The word on the streets of that place was that he was a high-ranking official in a foreign organization and he worked with the foreigners. Mind you he frequents the local bar and yet they seem to have a special spot for him as he drinks whiskey and nothing else. Even the owner who was deep into her prime seems to be trying to roll back her age so that he could attract his attention. Then at a certain time this pretty young woman was employed as the cashier of the place and he missed no time in making sure his chair was moved very close to where the new ‘lady on the block’ sat tending cash machine! After all he must have concluded there was a new challenge for him. It took him no time to make her laugh and enjoy what she was hearing. Business is business!
Now maybe without thinking twice, maybe after doing some calculation he tells her he was a pilot of commercial airplanes and spent most of his time abroad. Then a few days or so later he tells her he even had his own house in London and one day he’d like to take her all the way to England. Now the young pretty woman was all teeth probably thinking of how wonderful life would be in London, because the way he told her he was talking less than romantic escapade, which might finally end by tying the knots.
As it was with close friends at workplace this young lady tells her story to another colleague.
“What! He told you that he was a pilot?”
“Yes; in fact he also told me he’d take me to his house in London?”
“London! Are you telling me he has a house in London?”
“Yes.”
The news flew around and he remained the breaking news for days and no one was telling him what was flying around. And then one day probably having too much booze in his system he tells that same lady he was appointed as the head of the foreign organization he worked for and all the frenjis were under him. Here is when something clicked in the mind of the lady. “Did you leave the pilot’s shop?” she asks him one particular night. It was a bolt out of the blue as it showed on his face. They say the unexpected usually catches us unawares and that is when the entire mask comes off and the world is faced with the real us, a complete stranger.
By the way, the guy’s story comes out in the open as people stopped whispering behind his back and started talking openly. The brave ones confronted him up front and even accused him of having fed them nothing but lies and more lies. Finally someone finds out the guy’s real occupation, which was that he had no real occupation to talk off.
But somehow he makes the round of the city and always had enough money to show off. When once the spectacle dims and the guy abandons his favorite spot a couple of regulars confessed he had tricked them in giving him substantial money promising to get them the visas they desperately wanted.
But these days this one is not much of a story as the strategies and approaches of tricking people out of their money and property have evolved. The talk of the town is that even too many of the smart people are easily hoodwinked into losing considerable amount of their hard earned money by the masked crowd too many of which we seem to have.
Look these days there are so many of us wearing multiple masks that the dangers of being misled into things we normally could have never thought about of are immense. When the masks come off, sooner or later, there would be stories which are nothing lesser than Oscar material!
-Do we know what We think we know!
Him: ̶ You don’t look as bad as I thought you would look. Don’t take it literally. It is my new way of greeting you.
Me: ̶ Thanks!
Him: ̶ Oh! Now I am really surprised. I though at hearing me you’d be angry and start accusing Me of people down there alone. If you said thanks it means you are not sure about my saying you don’t look as bad as I thought you’d.
Me: ̶ I was only accepting Your greetings. But as to not looking bad to tell you the truth this is the worst I’ve been in recent times.
Him: ̶ Then I must be wrong. And don’t blame me for that. Every time you come here your shoulders are hunched, your face dark as dark would be, and even your dressing style is not as well as I see now.
Me: ̶ Well, to tell you the truth, it’s maybe I wanted to talk about other things than only my country.
Him: ̶ Are you telling me your country’s problems are finally solved?
Me: ̶ No! Not at all. In fact I think what’s happening in the other part of the world would negatively weigh on my country in a very bad way.
Him: ̶ Oh; and which other part of the world are we talking about?
Me: ̶ I was mentioning the war between Israel and Iran.
Him: ̶ What about that?
Me: ̶ What! I can’t believe you said that. Aren’t You worried about what might happen to human beings as a whole.
Him: ̶ Why should I be? Look, if I said even a single word about that then the whole of you would be accusing me of behind the whole thing.
Me: ̶ Aren’t You?
Him: ̶ Aren’t I what?
Me: ̶ Aren’t You behind the whole thing?
Him: ̶ You see what I was saying right now! I tried to say a few words and you’re already accusing me of being part of the whole thing.
Me: ̶ But please don’t take this as if I’, disrespecting You. But, the breaking news is that You are in the midst of it all.
Him: ̶ Now we’re being serious aren’t we? Look, it is not that I know nothing about what you people are talking about down there. Even two of you don’t seem to agree over anything and yet you point your fingers at Me!
Me: ̶ Did I offend You? Please, forgive me if I did so. I was only trying to tell You what’s going on among us.
Him: ̶ I’m not offended. In fact I think I’m interested in this issue than any other. To tell you frankly at first I tried to listen to what you people down there were saying about the issue. But I told you I knew what you people are talking about. But things have become so bizarre I’ve stopped listening.
Me: ̶ But why should You do that?
Him: ̶ I just told you it’s bizarre. I’m not sure if you yourself know what you’re talking about.
Me: ̶ That I could tell You. We’re talking about how you have taken sides and all that’s happening was destined to happen.
Him: ̶ And since you are accusing me of being so involved at least you should tell me what’s my role? Don’t tell me it’s in the launching of the missiles.
Me: ̶ How could I say that?
Him: ̶ Come on! You can’t point your fingers at me of being an accomplice to the whole thing and fail to tell me what I was supposed to do.
Me: ̶ According to what is going around it isn’t that you’re actually in the middle of it. It’s only that it’s according to what you decided ages back and here was no way of preventing things from going out of hand.
Him: ̶ And where do you get all that information with which you make me part of the whole charade?
Me: ̶ Well, everything is in the scriptures isn’t it? There are many instances pertaining to what actually is going on now and it was only a matter of time for it all to blow up. And even those well acquainted with the scriptures are saying this was one of the things human beings could do nothing about.
Him: ̶ Well, well, well! You are real serious, aren’t you?. But then I’ve to ask you a very important question if you don’t mind.
Me: ̶ I don’t mind at all! In fact I consider myself lucky talking with You about this issue because as they say the buck stops with you.
Him: ̶ Your literary genes must be kicking in! My question is how come you people interpret what is in the scriptures in opposite ways and still claim you’re talking about the same thing. Over the ages I’ve come to realize people just pick out a few quotes and act as if they know everything there is to know. But it never works that way. Ill tell you that why you fail to impress is that you are talking about things you know nothing about and haven’t got the courage to admit the fact. Who is anyone to decide who got things right and who got them wrong?
Me: ̶ Hmmm…You raised a really important point that always personally concerned me. But one thing is that most people take what those with good knowledge of the scriptures tell them.
Him: ̶ And you believe there are people with good knowledge about the scriptures?
Me: ̶ Yes I do. It was because of them we know so much about the issues we would not have been able to enjoy by ourselves.
Him: ̶ Look I know you might be offended by what I am to say. But I have to say it. It’s only that you think you know while the fact is the opposite. Need I say more?
Me: ̶ No, I fully understand.
Yes real knowledge must be that what we think we know is usually the opposite and that must be one of the reasons we fail to listen to each other. The outstanding question here is, do we know what we think we know?
BY EPHREM ENDALE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 22 JUNE 2025
