Your Side of the Story

This blog, this semester, has been dedicated to symbolic concept of the Four-Window metaphor and the many creative levels that can be applied. Suppose for a minute, that you uncovered yet another layer in which the windows became mirrors—four mirrors. The first mirror is shattered, broken, and unusable. Perhaps you smashed it, unwilling to look at the reflections. The second mirror is clouded, opaque, steam covered like after a hot, cleansing shower. You look at it, but see merely some semblance of a face. You look away, ashamed, disturbed, and confused. The third, you brush the steam aside to look at a distorted and broken image, your image. You study it, try to look into its eyes, yet fail and walk away…day after day, you walk away. Then, the fourth mirror, clear, perhaps a bit smoky and murky, yet you are willing to clean the mirror and find the face who lives there.

Do you dare look at the face? Can you study, listen to the stories, relive the memories, look at the other faces, and love them regardless of who they are…who they were…or who they are yet to become; it was they who have brought you here standing in front of this mirror. As I look at the reflection, I must ask it; “Are you are ready to proudly carry those faces with you, to tell their stories without reservation or trepidation?” There are so many stories, some good, some not so good; some happy, some sad. There are funny stories, wretched stories of fighting death, fighting life, of undying love and unspeakable hate, and of vivacious pleasure and unbearable pain. There were times of drugs and drinking, of dying and living, of driving fast and stopping faster, of hard work and lazy loafing, of being homeless and owning a home, of being free and being locked up, of standing in heaven and lying in hell.

Each story has a face…sometimes smiling, sometimes crying, other times bruised, and others confused. It may be time for you to look at the fourth mirror and tell your side of the story; don’t you think?