The problem is that too often, either because of performance and/or people’s expectations, over a period of time, we lose ourselves, and in the Orwellian typology, our faces grow to fit the mask. The problem is not that we have multiple personas. The problem, Arendt postulates, is not that personas are bad per se, but they become life-taking when our personas become us.Īll of us have personas that enable us to fulfill the many obligations and responsibilities of this life. The political scientist, Hannah Arendt speaks of public life as persona and performance – to be what others need and expect us to be and to perform as needed. It has come to mean the mask or façade meant to satisfy the demands of the situation, and not that which necessarily represents the true character or personhood of that individual.

The English word, “persona” derives from the mask used in Greek tragedies. The last few years have been the journey to find myself again, the person beneath the mask, the person that got lost along the way. He killed the elephant, as was his duty, and it was said of this policeman – “ He wore a mask, and his face grew to fit it.” I realised then that my face had grown to fit the mask I was wearing, and now, having had the mask ripped off, I was left without one, not merely a mask, but a face. He struggled with the decision as he knew the meaning of the elephant to the people of Burma. In the story, a colonial policeman was asked by his colonial masters to kill an elephant without hesitation or remorse. It was a gift to me of understanding, and from that understanding, the ability to address my ontological and existential realities. Though the story’s intent was meant as political satire on colonialism in Burma, one line stood out to me that seemed to define the essence of my particular situation. George Orwell wrote a short story, “Shooting an Elephant”. I looked in the mirror the next day and didn’t recognise the image staring back at me. It was as if my life had hit a particularly strong whirlpool (in this case self-created), and I was sucked beneath the churning, dark waters. Everything that was my identity, everything I owned (literally), was lost beneath the turbulence, in one defining moment. Some years ago, my raft/life capsized and I found myself submerged beneath the water, struggling to survive, to keep my head above the water to keep from drowning. What do we do at times like these? How do we navigate the turbulence when the raft/life, is in danger of careening out of control and flipping over, submerging us?

Whirlpools and eddies churn the water and leave us feeling a loss of control as the whitewater tosses our raft, our life as it were.

However, we inevitably run into rapids at some points. If our journey in life is analogous to a river with the contours and the different terrain reflecting reality, then at times it is serene, and we can enjoy the sun on our faces and the breeze on our backs. That’s what earth is for!” This statement, that sounds at the same time funny and yet not, reflects what some of us feel in moments when the journey of life is bone-crushing and soul-sapping. Soul 22 turns to Joe and says, “ You can’t crush a soul here.

In the Disney Pixar movie, “Soul”, the main characters, Joe and Soul 22 are engaged in dialogue in the fantastical place called The Great Before. Meetings with the representatives of our firm are held in the partners’ office (under advance agreement), there may be transmitted or received the documents through the office staff, in the office you may acquaint yourself with the information about ACTIO Law Firm.Written by: Timothy Khoo, Executive Coach E-mail: in Odessa (Ukraine) Gagaryna Str., 12-A, 16rd floor,ġ20 Faneromenis Avenue, Imperial Tower, 2nd floor, Office 201, 6031 Larnaca, CyprusĮ-mail: order to support international projects it was formed system of partners' offices in Poland and China.

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