It’s a nice reflection of you.
Most of us probably remember the stepmother character from “Snow White” and her famous dialogue – “Magic mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
It would be interesting for you to know that mirrors originated around 600 B.C.E., as a polished surface of natural materials which gradually developed to copper, silver, and gold. The use of stagnant water in some special kind of vessel was also a famous form of mirrors.
From the earliest recorded history, humans have been fascinated by reflections. Narcissus was supposedly bewitched by his own reflection in a pool of water; and magic powers are ascribed to mirrors. Mirrors have been used by lost people to signal for help.
We went to Disneyland years ago with our youngest daughter and her family. Our granddaughter Isabella was fascinated by the Hall of Mirrors. There you could go before mirrors with different curves that changed your reflection and how you saw yourself. She is currently reading the ninth and final in a series of books by Michael Buckley called “The Council of Mirrors.”
It is about a pre-teen girl and her girlfriend who end up consulting a team of magic mirrors, who prophesy that the only way the good guys will win the war against a town is if she leads the army.
My grandmother had a mirror inside and near their home’s front door where she could view herself full length before she and my grandfather went on their ritual weekly Sunday afternoon 10-mile round-trip cruise. She called it the “looking glass.” It was where one could look at oneself before others did.
I see myself differently in the mirror now as opposed to six months ago. Today I wear a mask when leaving our home and though I smile I don’t see the return the mask blocks. I recognize that too in friends I see in town.
Currently, most of us use different kinds of mirrors in our everyday life. The plane mirrors are the simplest ones which are used to get a reflection of the same shape and size. These are nothing but the mirrors we mostly use at homes. Then, there are mirrors with spherical surfaces. The rearview mirrors on vehicles which help us get a full view of the road are the perfect examples of the spherical ones.
As mirrors are created by polishing glass with silver it’s probably all right to refer to a silver lining in their use. When one gets into an automobile to go somewhere, after buckling the seat belt, the next thing a person should do is adjust the mirrors. I caution you to not panic when you see a masked face staring back at you; and ask you to look through the windshield and focus on going ahead with positive things; and perhaps one day we can see the silver lining in the rear view mirror as this pandemic is finally behind us!
Mirrors!