There has been a bit of a buzz on the internet this month about ‘taking the mask off’. There is even a hashtag #takethemaskoff. I have read a couple of posts about it. And I have been thinking about my own situation. Do I mask? I would say, of course I do. I call it ‘putting on my public face’. I don’t know for how long I have been doing it, but at least since my teens. I remember coming back from parties or other social occasions, and my face would literally hurt with muscle fatigue, because I had forced it into appropriate expressions for hours. These days it manifests more in a painful, tense jaw. But the principle remains, I have to take control of my face when facing other people and hope the expression I present is acceptable and correct for the situation. ‘Arrange your face’, says Richard…
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