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I saw a monster on Madison!
By farrind on 2008-10-31 22:58:34
I was walking along one of the prettiest stretches of Madison tonight, just across from Washington Park, as you walk toward
Delaware Avenue. The houses in that block are each entered by going up a flight of stone steps. It was about six o'clock, and
Trick or Treating had begun. Sitting on the high steps I saw a figure: at first I could not tell if it was a man or a woman, for it
wore black shirt and pants, and the face was turned away from the direction of my approach. Then, she turned and I gasped,
for I was staring at a wrinkled monster! She wore a mask covering her entire head; not just a homemade mask, but a scary,
rubbery all-black mask sparkling with green glitter. With a bucket of Twix bars between her knees, she was awaiting Trick
or Treaters. (I know she was a woman, because I came up to better check out the mask, and her voice told me she was
female. I know the kind of candy because she kindly gave me a piece!). Masks are what the world sees, and give others an
impression of us. This monster mask was so convincing! Did you see any masks this Halloween? Whether monster, ghoul or
gorilla, the mask portrays an image. You choose your mask to cap and complete your costume in an effort to really convince
everybody you ARE a gorilla, vampire or...you name it! I thought later about how our country also projects an image to
those in other lands. Just as you are convinced by a really good mask that you are in the presence of a creepy monster, you
can be convinced about what a person, or a group of people really are. What is America showing today as its mask? As we
continue to send armed forces to Afghanistan, to Iraq are we showing ourselves as decent? Peacemaking? That is what
Americans are- we are in general non-violent, are fair and decent. Yet I wonder if that is the image other nations are
receiving. Did the behavior of our military police at Abu Ghraib show us as we are- or did Baghdad, and the rest of the
world see a scary mask? To finish the analogy, if the people of America are not monsters, how can we unmask ourselves?
How can we restore our image of sixty years ago, of being a force for decency and peace in the world? Happy Halloween,
farrind
