Van Tango

"I had seven faces. Thought I knew which one to wear" - NYC by Interpol.

Yeah, of course we wear our "masks" in front of everyone. There is absolutely no doubt about it. Be it when one's in the company of a family member, a not-so-close friend, a collegue, a romantic partner or a stranger whom you want to have a chat with.

You don't go around revealing to a family member the secrets that you are not comfortable with in which are better told to an old-school buddy. Don't think you're willing to spill out your 'dirty laundry' stories to the charming man that you are aquainted with at a party. And a collegue who is in a close rapport to the boss won't certainly be happy if you blabber about the way you used diabolical schemes to escape and quit your old job coz you hate the seniors so much.

An easily jealous girlfriend won't be pleased if you keep speaking about your "platonic" gal mates and not concentrating on her feelings. Balance is the key to these situations. And of course putting on the appropriate "face".

Meeting the potential "parent-in-laws", one has to be in the best shape and courteous manner. Imagine putting on the "can't be bothered" face as if you've just bumped onto an irritating guy from high school in public. That would be like shooting yourself in the head from the possible bright future that they might forsee for you and their child.

Sometimes you have to put on the "Lying with a straight" face in some situations. Imagine you have a very good buddy since childhood and he/she is not as lucky as you are when it comes to attracting guys/girls. You can't just hurt him by stating that you are extremely happy that a couple of lovely ladies were hitting on you during some event...or telling her that you had a tough time choosing which "Mr Potential" from the dozen to be your partner at the gala dinner coming up this weekend IF you already know beforehand that those kind of statements would crush that buddy emotionally. That's why sometimes it's good to keep some things to yourself.

But of course when you meet your old enemies, you want to put on the "Big Daddy Cool" face to make you the superior one. With facts to back it up, you will think of all sorts of statements to attack with. "I've been doing this blah,blah since I've left school....joined the official sky-diving club...got to meet Donald Trump during this one event held at blah,blah...was told by me company to be the representative at the annual speech blah,blah...sang at Aniston's wedding...."

There you have it. Do you know which face/s to wear today?