Early morning. The sun hasn’t shown her face yet. In the distance the city lights are trying their best to be seen through the smog and pollution. The breeze from the inlet and the straight will trick you into thinking you’re breathing fresh air but all you have to do is look up and the illusion is shattered. Vancouverites know this intuitively, they hide this truth from their consciousness, they look down or straight ahead, they rarely ever look up. Too much depends upon the lie.

As we pass different scenes the people on the skytrain phase in and out of focus in the reflection of the window I’m looking through. Now I find myself looking at the window instead of through it. It’s the usual crowd. People employed at all levels and in various fields.

I begin to see that the reflection I’m looking at is a reflection of a reflection. People are displaying who they think they are, they’re a reflection of these beliefs and belief systems. Maybe they think they need to be a certain way, behave a certain way, speak a certain way, dress a certain way. Maybe our appearances are just reflections of all the lies we’ve been told, all those expectations, all the lies we now tell ourselves. Maybe not.

The thing about standing in a wilderness of mirrors and opening your eyes is that you have to deal with the consequences of such action. I think people secretly do this from time to time and then let everything phase back out. But how can you tell where truth ends and reflection begins? When you adjust the mirrors at just the right angle and see an endless reflection you have to ask yourself if truth even exists or if we’re even capable of seeing it.

Something is being reflected though, life is perspective after all, and that’s evidence enough for me. But, what about everyone else?