Descent

During the descent we also lose the way others see us.This is not always a bad thing in the long run, but it is humiliating and painful.  The mask that we present to the world slips off and the face behind it becomes visible, with its expression of terror, greed, despair, dishonesty-whatever is usually kept in the cellar.  The moment of surrendering the old image -of life, of the self-is most painful.  At such a time we know that we must strike out on our own, but in our new solitude and shame sometimes we go under,  for a while, or forever. Nonetheless, the stripping away of the mask that links us to all that we are known to be and do is a necessary part of descent, one that eventually allows a fresh start.
                                                    -John Tarrant, excerpted from The Light Inside the Dark