The Midway Mirror

Apart from the Bearded Lady, the oddest sight on the typical State Fair or circus midway are the distorting mirrors. The tall appear short and the lean appear rotund. Depending on how close you stand your head becomes enormous or shrinks to the apparent size of a grapefruit. But the truth is that the viewer has not changed--only the reflection has changed.

I have a mirror like that at my house, but the mirror's message was shattered last weekend. More than 20% off this year's incoming freshman class at DePauw has an alumni connection. Part of what that means is that some of my classmates were among those parents who were dropping off incoming freshmen. As I looked around I must confess to thinking that some of the "Class of '82" name tags must have gotten on the wrong generation of people. When did my peers get to be so old? And I started to wonder if my mirror has been lying to me. It has--or maybe it is not the mirror's fault.

The book of James talks about the foolishness of the person who looks in the mirror and forgets what they look like when they turn away. After this weekend, I realized that I not only forget what I looked like, but I can look right at the face in the mirror and see a person from years gone by. I must have this idea of what I used to look like and my mind goes back 15 or 20 years. So on Sunday I took a long, hard look. Whew! While it may make me feel better at the moment, self-deception is rarely the answer to anything.

John Bingham once said that a light bulb came on for him when he realized that if he was to become a runner, he would have to run with the body he had. That goes double for me. As I consider my running today--from training to pace to results--I cannot view my current experience as if I were ten years younger. Because I am not. And nothing good will come of trying to run as if I were ten years younger.

Not only that, but if I view myself at a stage of life that does not reflect my current reality, then how can I grow and develop? Either I will have too high of a view, or too low of a view. Too high of a view may make me complacent or arrogant (not wonderful traits) and too low of a view may cause me to be unduly discouraged. But an accurate self-assessment is tough. And that is where a good mirror comes in.

A good mirror will not distort the image to suit what I want to see, nor to reflect something other than what is. If I am willing to look intently and thoughtfully into a good mirror, I should see what is, as opposed to what I want to see. Sometimes that mirror will be a trusted friend. Sometimes that mirror will be God's truth. Sometimes that mirror will be the scale or a tightening waistband (How did these pants shrink going through the wash?). No matter the mirror, I must bring to the process a willingness to see what is real, and go on from there.

Pressing On!
-Ken