BRYCE ON LIFE
– Why do we hide behind things?
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I was recently in North Carolina on a little fishing getaway and stayed with an old friend I’ve known since High School. He lived toward the middle of the state, out in the country, and adjoining a massive lake. It was one of those areas in the country where you either had a nice, massive house and property, like my friend, or a mobile home with a small farm surrounding you. I’m not going to pass judgement on which home was better as we do what we can to survive, but I observed both types of properties lived behind some form of facade, and this got me thinking.
Some homes lived behind a plethora of flotsam and jetsam, while others were more orderly, yet I suspect most of it was facade. Ultimately, it represented the image people wanted to express, either “I don’t care anymore” or “Welcome.” It was here when I realized how dependant people are on facade.
We all use some form of facade to our advantage, such as cosmetics to hide a blemish, hair styles, personal hygiene, tattoos and body piercings, clothing and fashion, decor, automobile types, jewelry, even political correctness. All of this is geared to transmit certain messages to others telling them what kind of people we are, and what our interests happen to be. By doing so, it speaks volumes of our values and morality, e.g., what we deem to be important and what we do not.
We’re all trying to convey an image of some kind, particularly when we are young. Is it the true us? Hardly. It is how we want people to perceive us. Facade hides our flaws and imperfections. Perhaps the best way to think of it as a deflector shield, thereby telling the public what we want them to know about us, and what we do not.
Behind facade is the naked truth, something we’re trying to conceal for one reason or another. We do this because we fear honesty and it may reveal a weakness about us to the world. As Jack Nicholson said, “You can’t handle the truth!”
We also see signs of facade on social media where it is having a negative impact on teens, particularly girls, who are falsely replicating themselves as other popular students in their school or celebrities, and it is far from reality. Such false identities greatly impact the ego, particularly if it is detected by others nearby who publicize the falsehood. Then there is the matter of dating sites on the web; talk about facade! Both men and women retouch photos and write glorius descriptions of themselves in the hope of securing a date.
All of this implies people tend to suffer from an inferiority complex; that we do not want others to know the naked truth about us as we consider it embarrassing. Whereas we tend to be consumed with facade at an early age as we try to build careers, but as we grow older we tend to become less concerned with facade because we become less consumed by what people think.
Just remember, a coat of paint works just as well on rotten wood as it does on good wood. What will we find when we peel back the paint on you?
Keep the Faith!
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Tim Bryce is an author, freelance writer and the Managing Director of M&JB Investment Company (M&JB) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 40 years of experience in the management consulting field. He can be reached at [email protected]
For Tim’s columns, see: timbryce.com
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Copyright © 2021 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.
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