...and this mirror has the power to reflect your true personality, your true character. Do you look into the mirror?
I'd brush my hair back and maybe check for a blemish and walk away like I would from any other mirror.
I'd probably keep walking without looking, because there's no guarantee I'm going to like what I'm about to see. It may even be something unbearable. Ignorance is bliss, they say.
I feel a bit lonely, considering all of you wouldn't look in the mirror But, but. The thing is, others can often see our faults more readily than we can (at least some of them) so I wonder whether refusing to look in the mirror has more to do with maintaining denial/protecting ourselves from having to face up to our own less acceptable qualities, then a simple case of embarrassment in front of others. I guess the question is, would you look in the mirror even if you were all alone?
I probably would look. If I wouldn't, I'm sure I would be asking myself every day for the rest of my life Why didn't I look, what would I see?! and I'd spent all my life trying to construct somewhat similar object! Which would be kinda cool, like Tesla and his coil. But I guess my invention wouldn't be as revolutionary as his.
I like to think I am true to myself, or at least want to be. Only good can come from looking at the mirror. It can show you are accepting of yourself or what you might need to change if you don't like what you see.
Obviously a cursed mirror. Who could resist the temptation, but for he or she least likely to be devastated by the truth?
Funny, most posts assumed the flaws would be more pronounced, but what if it reflected our positive qualities? What if it showed us the gifts, the smallest gifts, we brought to the world, instead of the demons we try to hard to hide? I would look because I couldn't bear not to.
I think I'd get a kick out of seeing that. It may have something to do with the fact that I'm intensely self-honest. I see clearly my own strengths and flaws (well, not all, obviously). This forms the basis of my love-hate-relationship with myself. While it may sound like I would not need to see my true self because of this, or that a particularly negative vision would break me, it would probably instead provide me with some valuable evidence and insight. And I think I could handle it, because I wouldn't expect to see a perfect person (and if I did I wouldn't believe or agree with the mirror).
I don't know if the mirror would be capable, or willing, to point out the flaws like a therapist, but intense, deep, psychoanalysis has been a part of my job and my training for years. I know every single shameful, scary and wonderful thing about myself, that's been pointed out and examined both as part of the therapy and in analysis of my responses to patients. Even things I intensely disagreed with (being told), once I became aware of it, I couldn't ignore it and over time I accepted it. And as scary as all that might sound, actually, I feel loads better since I opened myself up to it. Maybe the fact that, as I was facing myself, I was head-hopping from patient to patient, and realising just how similar all of us are, in our virtues and faults, hopes and dreams, and if we work so hard to improve one thing, something else will get neglected, and nobody is perfect, far from it. This kind of perspective, I think, made it easier to 'look into that mirror' for me.
Interesting concept. It's the opposite of how Jonathan Swift defined satire: "Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's faces but their own."
