About a woman and her mirrors

There was, once upon a time, a girl, and it was long before she would become the woman in the title of our story.

The girl was learning about the world from books, from nature, from stories, and from the people around her, who were the mirrors at the start of her young life.

As bad luck would have it, the family the girl had been born into was lead by a very strict, sometimes outright mean, father.

The father had grown up in a world where things were though for you, no matter what you were, boy, girl, man or woman. So, to survive, the father had become himself very tough, and when faced with a daughter, the only thing he knew how to be was tough.

The father was a very tough mirror for the girl. He always pointed out what was wrong with her, be it real or just perceived, he always put her down when she had an opinion about anything, he always criticized her work, no matter how good or bad it was.

The girl’s mother was a gentle soul that put all her energy into surviving around her husband, always trying to keep the peace, never complaining about the harsh treatment she and her children received. Most often, trying to become invisible, so as not to awaken the wrath of her husband.

The mother was a crooked mirror for the girl. She showed her that, as a woman you need to be meek and invisible to survive. You need to keep your opinions to yourself and accept that, no matter how hard you tried, you will never do a good enough job at existing as a human being.

The girl also had brothers and sisters, and, as it often happens, bad treatments bring out the bad in people, and the girl’s siblings, somehow, seemed to resemble their father being mean and bad tempered, without boundaries or respect.

The siblings were a crushing mirror for the girl. They called her names and made fun of her with every chance they got, they stole her things and made her feel unwanted and like she did not belong.

The girl loved to read and this was her favorite way of spending time, escaping her very demanding reality, but, although she was very bright knowing a lot of words and things learnt from books, she was sure she is not good enough and was shy and awkward.

This made her be perceived as weird and slow in school, and sadly even the teachers were cruel to her.

School was an empty mirror for the girl, not providing any light or self-reflection.

Through a lot of hardships the girl managed to survive the world and herself, and she eventually became a woman.

As a woman, she left the place she was born into, found a job going on to create a life for herself.

When looking at her from the outside one would think that she was just another woman leading her normal life, only, that was not quite so.

The woman still carried with her all those images reflected back at her throughout her development, and now, when she looked at herself in a mirror, she saw looking back at her a weak, unworthy, unwanted, invisible, incapable, limited woman.

The image the woman saw of herself in the mirror was painful and monstrous casting a deep, dark shadow over her life.

One day, as she was getting ready to go out to a party, the woman was looking at herself in the mirror and all she could see was this flawed face looking back at her. A flawed face that she could not improve no matter how much make up she put on.

In her stressed state, the woman made a clumsy move and knocked over the mirror, breaking it.

With tears running down her cheeks, and ruining her make up, she told herself:

‘Just like me! To knock over the mirror and break it! Not enough that I am stupid and clumsy, now I will also have seven years of bad luck!’

A few days later, the woman went to the shops to find a replacement mirror. No matter what, women will always need a mirror! Just because they like to be neat and tidy.

The woman looked and looked, but she was not able to find a mirror she wanted. None reflected an image she remotely liked.

While browsing through the shopping centre, the woman was surprised to find in a second hand shop a section above which a rusty sign announced Broken and Old Mirrors.

Curious and slightly amused the woman went to take a look. As she entered the secluded area a small man appeared as if from nowhere. His hair was white and fluffy, making his head look like a large cotton ball.

‘Hello there! Shout if you need me!’

Shy, as always, the woman nodded without making a sound.

The space opened up in a square room in which every surface, every inch, was covered by a mirror of some sort. The woman chuckled seeing herself reflected in so many mirrors and in so many ways.

Somehow, in an inexplicable way, she could recognize herself in all of them, but at the same time she was different in all of them. She was all of those very different reflections, all of them were one, her.

Wrought with indecision she wandered around until the fluffy, white haired man popped back out from somewhere in the back.

‘Don’t expect to find a perfect or true mirror, all mirrors are liars, especially these broken and old ones. They will show you a reflection, but you need to know at all times that what you see in the mirror is just a projection, your true self can only be seen when you look inside, when you mirror yourself.’

The woman listened to him confused.

‘That makes no sense!’, she was worried her opinion might upset the old man, but he went on undisturbed.

‘It makes all the sense in the world. Look here. Look at me, and now look at me in all the mirrors around me. Is any of them 100% accurate?’

The woman looked at him, at his funny appearance and kind face, then she looked at him in the mirrors, he was right, no matter how much she tried she was not able to find a mirror that did his true being justice.

‘You might be right, but then, why use bad mirrors?’

‘Hehehe!’, his laughter made her smile.

‘We cannot help using mirrors and mirroring, we are humans, that is how we build our reality. The key is though to never forget mirrors can be liars, and not to let them dictate how you feel or what you do.’

‘Oh …’

‘Oh, indeed!’, he was very pleased with himself and her reaction.

‘I am going to lunch! You choose the one you like best and leave the money there on the counter.’, as if she had said something, he went on. ‘No, no cards please! Cash is king!’, and off he sauntered out of the shop without waiting for her reply.

Left alone, the woman took her time looking at herself in the mirrors and it was true, they all showed different sides of her, never being a full true reflection of her person, plus some of them were just badly made so they could not be trusted at all.

In the end the woman chose a mirror that made her chuckle when she saw herself into it. It was a mirror that, openly and honestly, did what the fairground mirrors do, it slightly distored the image in a funny way. It did not do it so much as to be unusable, but enough to make it clear that the reflection it showed could never be a true reflection.

The woman paid and pleased took the mirror home, all the way ruminating at the words the old man had told her.

Mirrors were not bad, they just weren’t to be trusted.

Now, every time the woman looked at herself in the mirror she smiled at the funny, distorted image that faced her, sure in the knowledge that, the only true mirror she could trust was the one continuously being built within herself.