The Mirror Generation

The Mirror Generation

Someone once said we can never truly know how we look, because we only ever look at our reflection

The British Psychological Society (BPS) agrees with this, thing is, I don't. 

• Mirror: Something that faithfully reflects or gives a true picture of something or someone else.

To "faithfully" reflects a true picture? I look at the square mirror on the wall above my desk and I don't see truth. According to the BPS I don't even see myself.

I know me, it's everyone else who doesn't. You look at me and you see the pretty face and bright eyes of a bubbly smart me with two slightly too big ears. You don't see me. You look at me, but you don't see me. I look at you, but I don't see you either, because I'm looking, not seeing. We think to see and look are the same thing. I look at the mirror and see me. You look at me, but that is all you'll ever do. We live on the same planet, but not int he same world. We walk the same streets, and yet we don't. I look at a tree, she looks at her first kiss, you look at your childhood fortress, my brother looks at wood and my biology teacher looks at life. And just that way, my eyes look at you, but I look at a human, your mother looks at her child, my brother looks at a nice butt and a mirror won't change that. So it it faithful to what we look at, but not to what you are. 

So a mirror might be faithful to the picture, but not to me. Because my picture is not me. And in a society where labels and image are everything there is no place for me. There's no place for those of us who choose to see, because win a generation of mirrors the only acceptable thing to do; is to look.