Noel Manuel
The mirror is a special object that adorns the wall of every household. It is an important item in our lives and apparently there are two reasons that make us trust the mirror so much. It reflects our identity in its exactness besides giving us the opportunity to transform our external appearance as we wish. The mirror is often positioned at a strategic location at home, so that we can catch a reflection of ourselves at any given opportunity.
Markets, shopping malls, restaurants, cinema halls and places of entertainment or business have realized what it means to adorn the walls with mirrors. Many of us love to admire ourselves in the mirror and we can do it for hours together. We always desire to be at our very best. From our facial expressions, how we dress, how we position ourselves and how we act. The mirror enables us to transform these changes into the perfect appearance.
But just how important is your external appearance as compared to your internal appearance?
However a mirror that gathers dust does not give us the identity in its exactness nor does it give us the opportunity to make the changes that we may desire. When does a mirror gather dust? A mirror hardly used gathers dust. A mirror seldom looked into gathers dust. A mirror ignored gathers dust. A mirror not cared for gathers dust. Eventually, a dusty mirror would reflect an identity quite different from our real external selves. And honestly, who would care to look into a dusty mirror? No one I guess.
Let me remind you that the mirror on the wall is quite different from the mirror in our conscience. The mirror in our conscience exists very much. It is much bigger from what we actually get to see at markets, shopping malls, restaurants, cinema halls and other places of entertainment. Unlike the mirror on the wall that only allows us to make the changes externally, the mirror in our conscience, allows us to make the changes both internally and externally. The mirror on the wall grooms our identity. While the mirror in our conscience grooms our image. Remember our identity is external and image eternal.
The mirror in our conscience is far more important than the mirror on the wall. We never fail to dust the dust off the mirror on the wall each day. Do we really take time to dust the dust off the mirror in our conscience? I guess not. I say this because it is not easy to dust off the dust in the mirror of our conscience. Unlike the mirror on the wall that needs a piece of cloth or paper to dust off the dust, the mirror in your conscience cannot be cleaned the same way. It is our thoughts, actions and words that need to coordinate with each other to actually remove the dust. And sadly, our thoughts, actions and words contradict each other in every situation of our lives each day. We say something quite opposite to how we think and behave. Or for that matter we do something quite opposite to what we say and think. And worse still, we think something quite different to what we say and do. This non-coordination of our thoughts, actions and words make dust accumulate in the form of an image of selfishness and hate.
What sort of image are we actually trying to build? An image of goodness and love or that of selfishness and hate!
Now, when we look into the mirror on the wall, we see our eyes, nose, hands and every other external feature exactly the way they ought to be. We don’t possibly see anything different or unusual. We might find the clarity amiss if the dust obscures the view. And this scares us. Almost instantly we react and dust the dust off the mirror so that we can see our true self and who we are.
In the mirror of our conscience, do we actually see our actions reflected by the way we think and speak? The answer would be an absolute ‘No,’ and this is because the mirror in our conscience has gathered dust and we are just not willing to dust the dust off the mirror. We are not as concerned about the dust in the mirror of our conscience than we seriously are about the dust on the mirror on the wall. If we don’t get the dust off the mirror in our conscience, how then can we get the actual reflection of our image – our image of goodness and love, to be precise?
The mirror on the wall reflects the picture of us, our face, body and who we are. The mirror in our conscience reflects the picture of our actions, thoughts and words and what we are?
It is the internal and not the external reflections that actually make up who we really are? The mirror on the wall gives us an identity – the indefinite picture. But the mirror in our conscience gives us an image – the definite picture.
An identity speaks of who we are while an image speaks of what we have done; what we are doing and what we can do.
An identity is known by a face while an image is known by what a person was, is and will be.
There are only two types of images that we can actually build. The image of goodness and love or the image of selfishness and hate. The image of goodness and love can be cultivated when we choose to dust the dust off the mirror in our conscience with good actions, thoughts and words. When the mirror in our conscience is free from dust, we then see the reflections of goodness and love. When the mirror in the conscience is ignored, dust settles in the form of selfishness and hate. Our actions, thoughts and words do not coordinate with each other and therefore the dust cannot be wiped off. Our lives turn imageless.
An identity is mortal but an image is immortal. An identity grows old with time but an image makes time grow old.
Most people, especially the young, spend a lot of time in front of the mirror before they venture out. It is important that we look decent, if not beautiful and handsome. It is a very natural phenomenon and we all follow this practice.
Looking decent, handsome or beautiful helps to promote our identity. Good actions, thoughts and words help nurture our image. We need to remember that the external identity is a temporary façade that will change with time. The internal image is a permanent picture that does not change with time.
The scriptures even say that ‘God created us in his own IMAGE and likeness.’ In fact, he created us in likeness of his own actions, thoughts and words. He did so to wipe the dust free from the mirror in our conscience, so that images of goodness and love could be reflected to everyone that looks into our mirrors.
Logically, we cannot do without a mirror in our lives. And secondly, we can’t possibly permit ourselves to look into a mirror that is dusty. Whether it’s the mirror on the wall or the mirror in our conscience, both need to be clean. While a dusty mirror on the wall can be wiped with a piece of cloth or paper, the mirror in our conscience has to be cleaned with good actions, thoughts and words. So that images reflecting goodness and love could emerge.
And rightly, it is our image that we so ardently seek to build and this is what really matters to us in life. So why wait, let’s dust the dust off the mirror in our conscience today, so that others can catch a glimpse of our reflections of goodness and love.
noelmanuel@rediffmail.com
The writer is the Coordinator of the Northeast Region (Poetry Society of India) and Life Member of the Poetry Society of India. Journalist and Correspondent Eastern Panorama (News Magazine of the Northeast) Phonetics Teacher
