The Mirror
The woman who wrote, "Men seldom make passes at women who wear glasses," understood the power of the mirror. You can’t bear to look, but neither can you look away. As our reflection in the mirror changes, it fascinates and frustrates. Our writers in this month’s issue confront the faces staring back. Appearances may only be skin deep, but these reflections go clean to the bone.
The Fraud In The Mirror
Word Count 739
Early in her career, my mother wrote copy for a fashion magazine where she learned to imitate how the models regarded themselves in the mirror. The pose. One leg slightly forward and bent, head held up, eyes on high beam, a look that broadcast, "I'm stunning."
Only my five-foot-odd Cockney mother could take full pleasure in posing the same way--one stocky peasant leg thrust forward, her head with its untamed mane held high, her eyes gleaming with unalloyed delight.
Whenever I watched her, getting ready for work, or an evening out, I'd wonder, "Who the hell do you think you are?“
I was also, however, becoming aware that reality can be malleable, shape-shifting. A concept that thrilled and unnerved me.
Black Mirror
Word Count 1143
When my siblings and I packed up our parents’ house in preparation for selling it to pay for their care, we unhooked no less than fourteen mirrors from the walls. My mother disliked looking in mirrors, just as she disliked having her photograph taken, but she delighted in the light that they catch and throw.
Before they became so terribly sick, I sometimes prowled their home with my camera. One of my favourite photographs is of the oval mirror in my father’s bedroom. Although he and I had a fractious relationship, when I look at this image I feel a tenderness close to love.