Glennette says…

As adults, we wear many different masks throughout the day. We were the mask of the happy employee, the dutiful spouse, the patient parent, or the insecure child in a grown-up body. Sometimes we take them off, but those times are few and far between. We don’t want to offend or step on anyones toes even if they are being a huge asshole.

Our children wear masks, too. Probably more than most adults. Peer pressure, influences from the media, overbearing parents, unbending teachers — each one requiring a different mask. Sometimes, they even have to wear the mask of grief and mourning for the loss of a friend. It’s a painful mask to wear.

Earlier this week, my daughter experience the loss of a friend in the most horrific way. He was stabbed to death. 14 years old and stabbed to death. It was considered a gang-related crime because the perpetrators belonged to the gang MS-13.

Last night, I attended a performance at my daughter’s school, Duke Ellington School of the Arts. The performance was called We Wear the Mask. Students from the Literary Media department performed their work on stage in a way that I have never seen. It was hard to believe that they were only students, high school students, in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grades.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj3EiQIlw0c

I saw my daughter in a different light because I felt like she finally let me peek behind the mask. I caught a glimpse of some of the thoughts and feelings she must be experiencing as part of growing up. I could see a little bit of her in each of the pieces. I could also see myself.

All of the children that participated expressed genuine feelings of love, hate, wins and losses. These were words that they wrote themselves, no one else’s. Every single piece was an original work.

Our children wear a mask and as parents, mentors, and members of the global village, it is up to us to see past the mask. It’s up to us to help them to be come into their own and respect themselves and others.

I believe that that is the only way to prevent children from killing children. The boy that died was only 14 years old. The boys that stabbed him to death were 17 and 18. You have to wear a mask, the mask of brutality, to stab  another human being.

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