On Mirrors.

Today, I was reading about conceptual art and minimalism. Hang tight, I promise this isn't all about art. As I read about the artist's intentions and the socio-political context of the time (1960's/1970's), I was struck by how the artists tried to deal with the chaos. Each artist had a different idea, be it making references to classicism or resorting to new ideas that tried to find simplicity within the chaos. One composition struck me particularly.

The artist was trying to enclose the viewer. When you are surrounded by this, you are surrounded by mirrors. There is no way to look down at the floor or to avoid the gaze of the mirrors. Everything you do in the room reflects and deflects until you are forced to look at yourself. No sidestepping or avoidance, just you confronting yourself.

On one note, there's the art side of me that realizes why people don't like modern art because it forces you to confront yourself. That honest conversation with yourself is terrifying.

On another note, something about this composition has still grabbed me. How often do we honestly stop and look at ourselves in the mirror and have an honest conversation with each other? How often do we honestly confront ourselves? Sometimes, we have friends in life that confront us and ask us the hard questions. However, we can still avoid them in a dialect.

This mirror represents so much more than a controversial world of modern art. It represents how we avoid ourselves and the difficult of our lives. If you took ten minutes to sit down and confront yourself in this composition, what would you find? What would you find within your brutal honesty? Could you look at yourself and be happy? Can you look at yourself and say you're proud of yourself and your accomplishments?

I, like most people, would be terrified of this conversation and what would come of it. Yet there's a part of me that craves that kind of honestly. It makes me question what I would find if I confronted myself in that way. I could ask myself a million questions, but would I ever find the answers? How would I confront the claustrophobia I would be forced into?

I don't know that I have the answer to this. I don't know that there is an answer. I just think it's important we all confront ourselves honestly. That we all stare ourselves in the mirror and acknowledge what we see back. The mirror is not something we should hide from. Rather the window into the world of the questions we've always been looking for.