Bozos on the bus
If you’re wearing a disguise for too long, it will be difficult for the mirror to recognize you. At the end of the day I hope you become the person they didn’t expect you to be. Be proud to wear you. Dodinsky
I recently wrote a post on the masks we wear and was delighted with the response I got from readers. I was reminded again of this post today, while reading Elizabeth Lesser’s “Broken Open: How Difficult Times Help Us Grow” . One of the stories I really like which Elizabeth Lesser tells in her book is called “Bozos on the Bus.”
In her own words, “It’s about how we spend so much time pretending to each other that our lives are all together, because we don’t want to admit that we’re just a “bozo on the bus.” But lo and behold, when you admit that to someone else, there’s so much freedom and there’s so much intimacy created. I would read that chapter, and it would encourage someone to raise their hand and say something like, “I was just diagnosed with cancer” or “My wife left me” or “I hate my job.” And just one person saying that in a group of 60 people, you could feel the whole group just sighing-like “The jig’s up, we’re all just bozos on the bus. We can get on with really being together.”
Related Post: Who’s behind the mask?
Thought provoking post. I missed your earlier post on this, so glad you linked to it.
I think life’s experiences and age do a good job at chipping away at masks.
Your post also reminded me of the line from Eleanor Rigby; ‘wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door’
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Really enjoyed this post and I absolutely agree with the sentiments in it. We do each other no favours by hiding our true selves from others. Often the pressure is to maintain a “face” at all costs – and again it does us, or others whom we come into contact with, no favours at all.
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“Bozos on the bus” – it’s a memorable description and I would have to agree with both Caroline and Lily in there comments too.
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That’s so funny because I thought of the Eleanor Rigby line too – so evocative. Great post and good comments too
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Thanks for posting – I enjoyed reading this today and your other post on masks too – very thought provoking
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Another great post from a really terrific blog!
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