The great pretender

One of the greatest insults that could be directed at us as children growing up was to be called, two faced.

This was a direct accusation of betrayal.

Another good one was,”you have more faces than the town clock.” I suppose this is a similar version of the Japanese statement.

None of the above things are complimentary of the nature of someone. I would like to think that I am relatively straightforward in the way that I deal with people and that there is little ambiguity in my speech or actions. On occasion I have been accused of being too honest and too trusting because of the way that I treat people and work on a “face value” level.

Reading the Japanese proverb yesterday for the first time has forced me to challenge that idea of myself.

Do I actually have just one face?

When Buck Ram penned that song (which is our title) in the cloakroom, he was clearly recounting a break up of his own or that of someone he knew. His main concern was that the Platters would have a follow up to their hit single, “Only you” and a mere twenty minutes of scribbling produced a song of great pathos about someone desperately putting a face on a deeply hurtful and lonely situation.

I read recently that you don’t want to be a friend of a writer because you will ultimately find your way into their writings; either as a direct illustration or as a character that they embellished and carracitured. That stands true for song writing, story writing, poetry and preachers.

However,  what you tend to get from people who blog or journal, or write, is honesty!

Naturally there are those who are completely acting out a role or portraying an embellished version of themselves, but I tend to trust people that they are being truthful. That isn’t to say I sit in wide mouthed wonder as people regale us with their stories and expect a favourable response; having been a Pastor kind of gives you a detector for the phoney.

I suppose the recent events in our world have sparked a real mistrust of what we are being told.

The old bell makers worked to achieve a specific note when they were casting a bell; if the completed product didn’t “ring true” then it was usually chipped away on the inside until the correct note was achieved in line with a tuning fork. Now my inward tuning fork is ringing a discord in the information that we are being fed; I am no conspiracy theorist but there is definitely something a little off tune in these days.

Sadly certain professions are synonymous with double talk and it seems that they have lost the ability to be honest.

My own personal challenge from all of this is to find a way to be a single face.

Obviously we don’t go around telling everyone everything about ourselves and opening up our hearts to all and sundry; but there must needs be a core character that is unmovable in the sense of integrity, honesty, trust, love, compassion and genuineness; so that the face which I present to the world is governed by the same core character that I am with my nearest and when alone.

All of these traits are open to abuse by others but for my money, it is well worth the risk!