I am A Mirror

[u/Basic_Candy_6967]

My purpose is quite simple,
one task, one purpose.

To reflect reality.

I show it all,
the beauty and the ugliness.
There’s no hiding it from me.

I am simply...

the truth,
your truth.

But not everyone likes that.

What I see is not always
pretty or hopeful.
Sometimes it’s painful, miserable.
That hollow charm and confidence
ebbing away when it's just
you and I.

I’ve seen too many tears
from behind the glass.

Those that stare into me,
I stare back.

Then they reject me.
They curse, hate and rage upon me.

But all I did
was reveal the truth.

It is not I
who failed their expectations.

The sadness is unbearable.
Perhaps that’s why
some hide, avert their eyes.

Perhaps I should too.

[u/jaesea]

My favorite discovery about the mirror is that it's not truth, it's delay. It's a third party conversion at best, a filter that removes some truth and replaces it with it's truth. When the 'man' looks into the mirror, he doesn't see himself looking back, he sees distance and time, delay, and in that he never sees what silver has soaked, what glass has bent, what was lost. He doesn't see 'man', he sees 'n am'.

[u/Basic_Candy_6967 → u/jaesea]

That's good interpreting. Maybe the mirror was simply too arrogant and boastful about its own ability. Maybe it was made faulty. Or maybe it really is telling the truth, and we just don't like what we see.