So who hasn’t been caught up in the recent ITV Saturday night family frenzy of shouting “take it off”? For those of you who have avoided the latest craze of The Masked Dancer and before that The Masked Singer will not have a clue as to what I’m referring to, but needless to say these are the type of shows that just make you want to sit down as a family and watch safe television together week after week.
The concept of pretending to be someone else, even if it is a scarecrow, squirrel or lama, has led me to consider that in every day life ordinary and extraordinary people often hide behind a mask and I’m not talking about Covid masks either. Whether we may be attending a job interview or meeting with a client for example, how people see us and consequently form an opinion albeit a positive or negative one, is usually very important to our self esteem. So in order to behave professionally and appear technically capable, we may adjust our persona accordingly or even dare I say, put on a brave face, to shield our real feelings inside.
How we behave at home and work is likely to show a difference too between the professional and personal side of our image and behaviour. If ever given the opportunity, I for one wonder, what it would be like to be behind the mask of James Bond. Being a mechanical design engineer with a particular passion for classic cars, I would of course need the Aston Martin DB5 to do the job properly.
