Soap Box Corner

I walk through the world carrying a subtle weight, the need to be seen, to be liked, to be known. It isn’t always loud or demanding. Sometimes it’s just a quiet tug: at work, in conversation, or while passing strangers on the street. Yet it is always there, the pull of other eyes, the silent invitation to perform my presence. In these moments, I am reminded of Carl Jung’s idea of the persona. This “social mask” we wear to adapt, to belong, and to move within the structures of society around us.

This longing to be recognized is complicated. At times, it fuels me, pushing me outward into connection and activity. At other times, it drains me, leaving me restless when I wish I could simply withdraw.

The philosophers noticed this tension long before me. Sartre spoke of “the look,” that moment when the gaze of another turns us into something more than who we feel ourselves to be. We become a reflection, an object shaped by how we appear in the eyes of others. There is affirmation in that, but also unease. Am I truly myself, or only what others see?

When the weight of this gaze becomes too heavy, I retreat. I slip into the quiet sanctuary of my own mind, a place untouched by judgment or expectation. Here, I remember Kierkegaard’s wisdom, that authenticity is not found in the approval of others but in the depths of the self.

In this stillness, solitude shifts from loneliness into something sacred. It becomes a pause, a breath, a moment to gather myself and return to wholeness. In this space, I encounter the truest version of myself: imperfect, uncertain, yet fully alive.

Life moves in rhythm between these two states. There is the bright stage of social life, where connection and challenge stretch me outward. And there is the quiet refuge of solitude, where I am restored. Both belong. Both are necessary.

Today, I accept this tension as part of being human, the pull to be seen and the grace of retreat. May I learn to move gently between the world’s gaze and the stillness within.

Recollection for the day:
“I honor both my presence in the world and my sanctuary within. I am whole in both.“