I recently looked into the mirror at myself. I mean really looked at myself. It made me think about mirrors in general. Before they were invented, all we saw of ourselves was a murky reflection of ourselves in a pond or body of water, or suchlike.
I often wonder if, with the invention of mirrors, came the higher awareness of ego, too. Vanity and self-inspection must have followed and therefore the stronger connection to I, rather than we.
I have no proof of this, of course, but before mirrors, the only reflection of one’s self-worth must have some from another’s eyes: therefore, a reliability on another to perceive oneself. Also, arguably, the idea of community must have been stronger because they were the only thing we saw before us each day, rather than ourselves?
I can’t help wonder what we would be like as a society today if mirrors (phone cameras too) were removed, even for a day. How would we function? How would our egos fair when faced with not being able to ‘check’ ourselves? Like the admirable women’s movement of going without makeup for a day, I wonder how a mirror ‘cold-turkey’ might affect us? If you decide to try, maybe you could let me know how your got on? Like all addictions, I suspect it would be uncomfortable at first, but would it change us? Even for a day?
I have started by using the hashtag #mirrorfree (which, interestingly, has less than a 100 uses) and see what it brings. Is your ego up for the experiment?