"We all wear masks...metaphorically speaking."

For those of you who can't quote almost all Jim Carey movies...this is from The Mask. I had this on VHS back in the day and my little sister and I watched it fairly frequently. I don't really know why we liked is so much. It's not that good or that funny. I mean, it has a couple good scenes (hello, Cuban Pete), but it was no Ace Ventura. I think the appeal of this movie is that it's about a normal guy that stumbles across this "mask" and when he puts it on he becomes the person he fantasizes about. He goes from the nice guy that everyone looks over to this charismatic, confident, social enigma that everyone becomes enthralled with. Of course, the moral of the story is that he was better "just the way he was" being the nice guy. He even got the girl...Cameron Diaz (her first movie...by the way).

No matter what anyone says I believe that everyone has had the thought cross their mind to what it might feel like to be someone else. Not literally another person, but that person that would be the best version of themselves. I wonder if I found that "mask" what I would become. Scary thought really, when the goals of who I want to be change frequently these days. I'm thinking I might be a 10-15 pounds lighter, slightly more articulate, incredibly well dressed individual standing next to my fiance that I met at church. Then again, I could be on the streets of Europe with no material possessions because I sold them all to have money to travel the world with.

I don't know how I would be different if I could magically be another level of myself...but, oddly this thought has made me reflect on the power of Halloween. For one night, you don't have to think at all about who you are. It's draining sometimes...McCain or Obama...single or married...on the rocks or frozen...constant questioning of how you define yourself. But on Halloween, you can channel yourself into whatever random idea for a costume you came up with. All of the sudden you really don't care about who you are, you simply care about having fun. This has actually been a dangerous thing for me in the past because my version of "having fun" sometimes involves shots of tequila. That's a whole other story. My point is we have the other 364 days to determine who we are and figure out how to actualize our potential. I'm glad there is one day that day that we DO NOT. Hope everyone had a memorable Halloween...