We show perhaps what we wish other to believe we are. Masks. Our identity shaped by experience and emulation. Austerity of our being. The old wisdom as known to me, “Born the spider, crave the fly”. We know not, and act according to what we believe.
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”
As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7)
Indeed are we actors, and only in our solitude, ourselves.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2)
When we die, people will say this and that of us, they will remember us by the memories we bequeath, and yet, our work colleagues will have different perceptions of us than our partners, or friends, or enemies. So what are we?
“I am not what I am.”
Othello (Act 1, Scene 1)
नेति नेति – Neti Neti ~ Neither this nor that. ‘Jesus’ replied to Pontious Pilot who asked if he were The King of the Jews, “You say that I am”, what others believe we are, regardless, is what we are. …
Likewise then, in truth, truth to ourself, limited by our ignorance we can only be what we have known,
“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 3)
… and to use this descript further as ‘Jesus’ also expanded, “For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
This is not a speech of arrogance or hubris or to be elitist, truth exists in everyone, but masks and wrappings and book covers are what we choose to show the world, in truth however, though rarely will we show this, express our true nature, but if true- even at the risk of ridicule and oppression we can only always be right.
“God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.”
Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1)
Now God, as we can understand, is truth, regardless of even the story behind the cover, of the cultural context, or whatever religion and attempt to explain, truth is truth- the nature of what is inherent in everything.
At our first breath we begin alike and experience and then emulate and evolve, forming our mask, at death, we can look back at our life and know, how futile this mask is, our possessions and wants, which mean nothing.
But, what is the first impression I want to give everybody about me? It’s chess, I allow them to move first and act accordingly. I am a poseur and an actor for nothing of want and certainly not as the question asks, to impress. Call me a Libran then, a people pleaser, though in heart, it is desire for equilibrium and peace which can only exist in truth. But also I am vulnerable and mysterious and more often than not I am seen and known as aloof.
An excerpt from my poem which introduced my book the Fallen Angel;-
v.
Let the world to such (your) beauty be spellbound.
I am but a glance; To admire your soul.
You will do as you will;
Take that, you found.
Pass me by! I am but a near silent desert.
The ever shifting sand.
The Western Gate 
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