The Bluestone Review Spring 2022

If the truth be known, I think I might not be the only one who is ready to discard the mask. I believe people around the nation and the world long for kindness, love, light, and reconciliation. They groan for authenticity, not acting; for goodness, not guile. The problem is that hiding behind the mask is often easier than showing people who we really are. Even for Batman, Bruce Wayne was not quite willing to give up his playboy lifestyle as a handsome million aire to be publicly known. As long as he remained hidden behind his mask as “The Caped Crusader,’’ he enjoyed the best of both worlds. Yet I am not a superhero. I have no special powers, no cape, no ability to confront the vast array of villains who destroy others with heinous acts. But this I have. I have the opportunity to speak out for truth; to be vulnerable; to serve others, unconditionally. It is long past time for me to rip off my mask and demonstrate to everyone around me who I really am. That mask never really protected me, anyway. Untitled By Mykenzie Belcher “One more time.” This motto never had a meaning in the life I had once lived. It wasn’t until a person whom I loved very much was on his deathbed, that this motto struck a chord in me and helped me find the purpose everyone longs for in life. There were moments when my moth er begged me to take the trash out in the dark one more time. It had no effect, but I did it. When my older brothers asked me to play basketball with them one more time, there was no effect, but I did it. When my fa ther wanted me to watch “The Masked Singer” with him one more time, there was no effect, but I did it. Although, once upon a time, these words had an effect. The windows were open, winter air whirled in and seeped into my covers that occupied my boyfriend and I, but the bed, it wasn’t an ordinary bed that housed our bodies. It was the very bed he died in two hours later. The comfort I found in his embrace in his last moments was the worst, but the best minutes of my life. The life I once coveted to end. That was until the silence that surrounded us and suffocated my tears was

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