Mirrors

 I first published an earlier version of this essay in 2006.

So, there are always a couple ways to read any article, and far be it for me to simplify that challenge for any readers who may choose to grace my site with a visit tonight or tomorrow. 

Maybe this is about aging. Or maybe about our views of ourselves as compared what others see in us, or don't. Or maybe it is about our emotional age, quite a different issue from our biological age.

Anyway, I notice every morning when I look in my bathroom mirror that, perhaps due to the lighting or the angle or the color scheme in that small room or some other factor that I seem to look pretty good. It's usually, "Dude, you're okay, no wonder a few ladies still find you attractive."

That's nice enough, but later when I return to my bedroom, a much larger room with different lighting, a different mirror and a different color scheme, I seem suddenly to look perfectly awful.

So who is that man and how did he age so rapidly walking from one end of his flat to the other?

Something similar happens at work between the elevator mirror and the one in the men's room. I'm not sure what I am looking for when I look in mirrors, but is most definitively is not to find out I have aged myself out of contention.

My older sister said the wisest thing I’ve ever heard about mirrors: “If you don’t like what you see, stop looking!”

Meanwhile, there is the matter of the human mirrors we provide for each other. You don't have to have studied Jung to be aware that our Western concept of romantic love includes a strong element of falling in love with how another person sees us. What (s)he reflects back to you is intoxicating in a way no drug could ever be. Once somebody sees your inner beauty in a new way, that helps you feel valued and loved, it is like no other experience, and you may be hooked to his/her attention going forward.

”Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who is the most beautiful of all?” 

Easy answer. It’s the one who thinks you are. That is the essence of love. Turn away from him or her if you choose, but you may not easily find that kind of love again.

Or, maybe that is my mirror image talking. Nothing is simple, let alone the image that surprises us in the mirrors surrounding us. Especially the human mirrors. Each new one sees a new you.

Because we keep looking.

***

Baseball fans appreciated the moment Tuesday evening when Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees hit his 62nd home run of the season, a new American League record. His feat came exactly 61 years after Roger Maris of the Yankees hit 61, breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 60 set in 1927. Ruth did it while he was a Yankee too.

LINKS:

• Ukrainian troops overrun Russian forces, break through lines in recently annexed Kherson (USA Today)

• Ukraine offensive advances in south of country (BBC)

• Refuting annexation, Ukrainian forces push on from Lyman toward Luhansk (WP)

• In Retreat on Ukrainian Fronts, Russia Shows Signs of Disarray (NYT)

• Will Russia use nuclear weapons? Here are President Vladimir Putin's warnings explained. (Reuters)

• Russia’s Nuclear Bluster Is a Sign of Panic (Atlantic)

• Retreating Russians leave their comrades’ bodies behind (AP)

• As Ukrainian Forces Advance, West Plays Down Threat From Russian Nuclear Weapons (WSJ)

• Herschel Walker’s son calls candidate a liar and hypocrite over abortion denial (Guardian)

• Trump’s lawyer refused his request in February to say all documents returned (WP)

• President Joe Biden reportedly told the Rev. Al Sharpton he is going to run for reelection in 2024. Biden apparently made the remark while posing for a photograph last month at the White House with Sharpton, according to a National Action Network official. [HuffPost]

• Hurricane Ian’s death toll rises as crews in Florida go door to door in search for survivors in decimated neighborhoods (CNN)

• In Trump White House, classified records routinely mishandled, aides say (WP)

• Knocking on Every Door, Rescuers Search Fort Myers Beach After Ian (NYT)

• Democracy, poisoned: America’s elections are being attacked at every level (Guardian)

• The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a major legal battle that threatens to further undermine a landmark federal voting rights law as the state of Alabama defends a Republican-drawn electoral map faulted by judges for diluting the clout of Black voters. (Reuters)

• The landmark Voting Rights Act faces further dismantling at the Supreme Court (NPR)

• Election officials confront a new problem: Whether they can trust their own poll workers (Politico)

• The Supreme Court said it will hear Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh, two cases concerning whether tech companies could be held legally liable for what users post on their platforms, as well as for content that users see because of the platform’s algorithm. [HuffPost]

• Dow rallies more than 1,500 points in two days as fear begins to fade (CNN)

• North Korea Fires Missile Over Japan in Major Escalation (NYT)

• 'Pale blue dot' planets like Earth may make up only 1% of potentially habitable worlds (Space.com)

• Loretta Lynn, coal miner’s daughter and country queen, dies (AP)

• The Onion files Supreme Court amicus brief defending the right to parody (WP)

• Report: System Update Means Computer Going To Have To Go Away For Little While (The Onion)