PERSONA

Dear All of Us,

So, come on now.
Be honest.
Just how deep
are you into

"SELFIES" ?

You know,
those ubiquitous
smartphone self snapshots?
The ones that get pictured
all over Instagram, Snapchat,
Facebook.


Well, one way or a bunch more,
with or without a smartphone,
we're all into

     "SELFIES."

They are how we
    "picture"
   ourselves
    in public 
for the public.

 This kind of
  
    "Selfie"

 is more commonly called our

          Persona.

Just like the smartphone Selfie,
it shows just a little
of who and how we are.
It portrays not our face,
but how we face other people.
To push the metaphor
beyond regulations,
in public we put
our best foot forward,
a carefully crafted portion
of who we are is shared.

This is where it gets critical.
On the one hand,
most people aren't
at all close to prepared
to deal with all of us,
so we portion out
an appropriate bit
of ourselves
in social exchange.
Getting a snow cone
on the boardwalk
calls for a pleasant exchange
and a bit of cash.
It does not call for
a profound
personal exchange,
            an
     " I Thou"
sharing the depths
of ourselves
with others.
What's critical here
is that what we picture,
the self snapshot we share,
is both an honest representation
of the portion of ourselves we share,
and one appropriate to the
occasion/circumstance/relationship.
What sickens our soul is when we

              Photoshop

a "Selfie "of ourselves that bares
little resemblance to our 
         True Self.
That pollutes and prevents
any real sharing of self.
It undercuts authenticity.
Our spiritual living is degraded.
Its viability and zest
are at stake here.


At it's best, our

    Persona

is a smidgen of
who and how
we really are,
of  our
   True Self.

At it's worst,
it's inauthentic,
phony and fake -
          our
  "False Self"
projected, expressed.



The word and notion of

        Persona

comes from
the ancient Greek theater.
There were only one
or two actors in a drama.
Each would play a variety
of characters in
the same presentation.
Costumes, as we know them,
were minimal.
To differentiate the varied roles
the actor was portraying,
he would hold a mask
of the character
in front of his face
and speak the character through it.
He would then hold other masks
for yet other characters
and "speak" those characters
through those masks.
The mask in Greek was called a

            "persona".

  (All this kept prices down
        at the box office!).



Fast forward to us.
We use a mask, a

      persona,

to speak a portion
of ourselves
to each other.
It is the public face
we show - 
customer, student,
crew chief, performer, parent,
sauna buddy, bus driver,
casual friend, neighbor.
That's fine as long as
an honest and appropriate portion
of our
           True Self
is spoken through our
           Persona.


That's a great exposure,

     a true to life

      "SELFIE."



          Every goodness and blessing

                    be yours.

            Holding you and all in

              God's Dear Love,

                 John Frank

                   *****

Again and always thanks for sharing

           "frankly speaking"

with family and friends through

word of mouth and your selection

of social media. It's the main way

people find out and connect

with us here each week.



Welcome to those joining us for the first time.

Thank you for the gift of your presence.

Please consider a bit of orientation by reading

             What's Going On Here?

                         and

             Consider Your Source.

           ( right column above )

                   

                "frankly speaking"

             spirituality for the street 

*is posted online each Thursday evening,

  east coast USA time at

        johnfrankshares.blogspot.com 

 and can be bookmarked for ready access

*is available by automatic email each Friday

     ( sign up, right column above )

*past postings are available at Blog Archive

             ( right column as well )


                      Thank You

Looking forward to seeing you next week!!


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