If you had looked at the brilliant Professor Stephen Hawking in the last years of his life, you'd have seen only a small, shrunken man in a state of utter debilitation. Yet, due to technology that could turn the squeeze of a cheek muscle or an eye blink into language, Hawking continued to lecture, research, write, and "speak" as one of the greatest minds in physics and cosmology--right up to the time when he lost his battle with ALS. For him, the weak, crippled body was merely a mask. It hid a genius immense enough to span the universe and insights that will be studied for generations.
As we approach the holiday of Purim (also known as "The Festival of Masks"), I've been thinking about the metaphorical "masks" we all wear. Do our masks conceal our truest selves? Or can they sometimes help reveal us as well? ...Continue reading on my weekly blog at rethinklife.today