They say mirrors don't lie, but you know they do. They have something to say about everything but the person looking in the mirror.

They reflect a surrounding, a context, that the viewer carries off in his or her head, but that context stays put. You see yourself framed, but when you walk away there is no frame. The lighting stays, the backdrop stays, the silly expression you always wear when you look in the mirror stays, the head tilt stays, the make-up pout stays -- you carry away the image, but not the reality.

The mirror cuts off all the parts of you that do not fit. The mirror edits for time and space and content. The mirror never bothers to try to show you the parts of yourself you'd rather not have exposed to scrutiny.

What you see in the mirror has everything to do with what you wish you could see and how you fail to be that ideal. The truth is, when we look in a mirror, we are everything that doesn't fit in the view.

They say mirrors don't lie, but the truth is they get everything absolutely backwards.

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Posted by Laszlo Q. V. St-J. Xalieri