A couple of weeks ago, I was approaching an overpass (over Rt. 288), when out of nowhere comes this squirrel. It wasn’t immediately in front of me, so I didn’t need to react or change my course. I simply watched and quickly thought–“We’re on an overpass; where in the world did that squirrel come from?” I mean, it’s not like I was driving down a road with forest or even grass on either side–this was an overpass over a highway! So, I slowed just a tad to watch what would happen. I’m sorry I did because I think what I saw was quite possibly something I will never see again–nor would I want to.

After scurrying quickly across my lane (going left to right), the squirrel hopped up on the guardrail of the overpass, gave one last sad look over his shoulder and *gulp…sob*….jumped.

A moment of silence, please…

Speaking of dead stuff, I just don’t mind seeing a dead cat on the side of the road. I figure, “one less”. Because I’m a dog guy. And yesterday, on my way home I sadly caught sight of a dead dog. I would’ve have been much sadder if I hadn’t been so intrigued by the position of its body. It was as if it was standing on all four legs one moment, and perhaps it had a severe heart attack at the exact time an 18 wheeler came by and the gust of wind from the truck just knocked it over. Honestly, I could have gotten out of my car, walked over to it, and stood it back up. And any other car that would have come after me would have simply thought the dog was waiting patiently to cross the street. That’s actually not a bad idea. I gotta go.

(I recently told a friend of mine that his blog had grown stale. And then I looked at my own blog and it’s been a month since my last entry. )

So, I was driving in my car today, a 1992 Crown Victoria given to me as a gift. Spinning in the cd player was what I call “The Crown Vic Mix”. Track 13 has these words…

“Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, Mata ah-oo hima de

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, Himitsu wo shiri tai…”

…And later in the song…

“The time has come at last

To throw away this mask

Now everyone can see

My true identity…

I’m Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy!”

This song, “Mr. Roboto”, by Styx tells of the plight of one outlawed rocker named Kilroy, who was captured by the MMM; and his struggle to be free from their tyrannical control of what used to be the free world. But there’s more to it than that. It’s about freedom to be who we are (who God made us to be) rather than being a captive of who we think we ought to be, or who people think we are or should be.

It seems that being a human being sometimes has a lot to do with maintaining an image; and sometimes it seems to be more like a mask. It takes different forms and shapes for different people. I was in Starbucks today waiting for my plain ‘ol cup of coffee when the man next to me placed his order–it seemed to have 8 different words making up its name. I thought, “Man, his coffee is complicated.”

I’m not old enough to turn this blog into a “I remember the good old days when…” kind of soliloquy. And I’m not interested in that either. But I do wonder about what kinds of masks people wear. I think just about anything can serve as a mask. A house, a car, a job, a wardrobe, a habit, and even a blog.

But I’m interested in living a life that is free from masks, free from worrying about other’s thoughts of me, and free to be who God made me to be. And I think the trick to it is to be o.k. with who I am. Really o.k.