Older, but no wiser

I'm beginning to think that The Happy Tutor has a Google alert on the word "authentic".

I had to think twice about using it after last time, when I got a whipping from Candidia (wish I could find it to link to).

He has a point though:

"So many faces in real life remind me of death masks, authentic in every detail. Better to wear a Carnival mask, maybe, and impersonate our better selves than to wear the mask of civility until it grows into our flesh."

Too late, I fear. Could any surgeon wield a knife with such skill as to separate mask from flesh without leaving terrible scars?

But a Carnival mask - now, there's a thought. Word association brings to my grasshopper mind an old Bob Dylan song, Jokerman, but then these lines from the song wipe the smile off the Joker's face:

"...Shedding off one more layer of skin
Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within."

Persecutor within? Yeah, I have one of those. Sometimes I stay one step ahead, sometimes two, but I never outrun him. He always catches up.

Time perhaps to turn and face him?