Again with the questions??????

Last night I had the great fortune of my oldest coming home for the weekend.
She is 'canning' for Thon...a PSU tradition...individuals and groups raise money from September to February and then the have a dance marathon...3 days of nonstop dancing for the lucky ones who get to participate. Canning means that she and her friends stand at intersections with big coffee cans and ask for donations from passersby.
She loves doing this so much. I am really grateful that she sees value in the effort to help others...the money goes for research at Hershey Medical Center for pediatric cancers.
Their motto is, "for the kids" (FTK).
It makes me sad to think that so many kids are neglected and abused when there is all of this love and energy going out to the ones who are sick.
Somehow the sickness makes them more special...which I understand..they have special needs...
but all kids are special...
all kids deserve people investing their time and energy to allow them to grow and mature in a whole and healthy way...In a perfect world!

I also had the opportunity to see daughter #2 play the lead female role in a murder mystery...it was an Agatha Christie play and she played this cold calculating woman who manages to get her husband acquitted from murder charges. In the end she reveals that her actions were all out of love for this husband...but in the process she has to break his heart. She was very good in the role.

I don't understand these facades that we put on.
Like the cactus...and the masks I've worn for most of my life...why don't we just allow our real self to be seen?
How are we programmed for this?
I know it's not a characteristic that is unique to us.
I read about it in human behavior books.
Why do we separate ourselves and maintain distance at such a cost to living an authentic life?
Who are we protecting?
It can't be that we are protecting ourselves because the masks do not allow us to grow and connect with others.
Is it specifically our ego?
Does the ego have that much power over the rest of the personality?
So how are we programmed for self protection at the expense of personal growth?
Too many questions...
I will have to think about all of this.

Until tomorrow,
Maggie