Can you look in the mirror without telling a story about yourself?

And a quick glance in the mirror turns out to be a mistake. Oh God, is that my face?

Looking at yourself in a mirror isn't exactly a study of life.

تخيل أنك عشت في عالم ليس فيه مرايا. كنت ستحلم بوجهك، كنت ستتخيله كنوع من الانعكاس الخارجي لما هو داخلك. بعد ذلك، افرض أنهم وضعوا أمامك مرآة وأنت في الأربعين من عمرك. تخيل جزعك. كنت سترى وجهاً غريباً تماماً. وكنت ستفهم بصورة جلية ما ترفض الإقرار به: وجهك ليس أنتَ

Nobody is familiar with his own profile, and it comes as a shock, when one sees it in a portrait, that one really looks like that to people standing beside one. For one’s full face, because of the familiarity that mirrors give it, a certain toleration and even affection is felt; but I must say that when I first saw the model of the gold piece that the mint-masters were striking for me I grew angry and asked whether it was intended to be a caricature.

"If one cannot get along without a mirror, even in shaving oneself, how can one reconstruct oneself or one's life, without seeing oneself in the "mirror" of literature?"

People who live in society have learned how to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends. I have no friends. Is that why my flesh is so naked?

When will my reflection show who I am inside?

"If you could just for a moment come out of yourself and see what I see...you wouldn't stop looking at yourself. But unfortunately you need a mirror to do it, my poor beauty.” (p148)

The mirror is a worthless invention. The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else's eyes.

Nobody is familiar with his own profile, and it comes as a shock, when one sees it in a portrait, that one really looks like that to people standing beside one. For one's full face, because of the familiarity that mirrors give it, a certain toleration and even affection is felt; but I must say that when I first saw the model of the gold piece that the mint-masters were striking for me I grew angry and asked whether it was intended to be a caricature. My little head with its worried face perched on my long neck, and the Adam's apple standing out almost like a second chin, shocked me. But Messalina said: "No, my dear, that's really what you look like. In fact, it is rather flattering than otherwise."

Man should not be able to see his own face. Nothing is more terrible than that. Nature gave him the gift of being unable either to see his face or to look into his own eyes. He could only see his own face in the waters of rivers and lakes. Even the posture he had to adopt to do so was symbolic. He had to bend down, to lower himself, in order to commit the ignominy of seeing his own face. The creator of the mirror poisoned the human soul.

On the days you find the mirror hard to look at,
remember there is a myth which says
the face you have in this life
is the face of the person you loved most
in your last.
I know it's just a myth.
But think of how much more love
you would give yourself if it were true.

People who live in society have learnt how to see themselves, in mirrors, as they appear to their friends. I have no friends: is that why my flesh is so naked?