This is the month kids look forward to, so they can put on masks and costumes to play pretend in public.
I’m a sucker for the playfulness and general weirdness that haunts Halloween. If my surname were any longer, it would qualify as an apparition. I get so excited, I started rehearsing for the autumnal masquerade six months ago, by wearing a mask.
My Halloween rehearsal mask isn’t full-face, so completely incognito I’m not, but I’m still semi-unrecognizable. If I’m at the supermarket, say, and someone I know walks right by me, I’m not offended. Depending who it is, I might even be relieved.
FULL-TIME MASKS
Let’s face it, though. Halloween or not, Covid or not, we wear masks all the time.
Actors — those professional students of the human condition – are trained to constantly study facial expressions.
Even if someone’s not an actor (I dabble in it off hours), is it any wonder we are more conscious than ever of each other’s full-time “masks”? Nowadays, we see more of each other on a screen in virtual close-up than on the street in real-life fullness.
ZOOM ZONE
I recently heard a new expression, “resting Zoom face.” Whatever it means, it sounds a little creepy, and not … quite … human. More like a Twilight Zone episode. Like the one in which we’re all currently appearing.
That’s it! My Halloween disguise!
This month, if you see a doppelganger, cigarette in hand, who resembles Rod Serling, be sure to stop and say hello.
It’ll be me.
