Mask On, Mask Off

October 22, 2020

I sometimes use one of my October columns to talk about masks and how liberating they can be for kids. In previous years, of course, I was talking about Halloween masks.

Kids are almost never fully comfortable in their own skins because they're continually in the process of growing out of them. They're also at least dimly aware that who they grow into someday is their own decision, and that's pretty scary. But give a kid a mask and they get to try on a whole new unique identity, to tap into little parts of their personality that might blossom if given an opportunity. When kids put on costumes, they suddenly transform into invulnerable superheroes, or cuddly bunnies, or silly clowns, or evil villains. It's only for a few hours, and it's low risk. But the payoff of trying on a whole new way of being can be big.

My childhood friend Paul Salvatoriello is a Broadway actor. As a kid, Paul loved trying on a new identities for Halloween, just as the rest of us did (I remember in the 4th grade he was the Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent, who had just been named that year's World Series MVP). But he told me that for adult actors, masks have an opposite effect of what they have for kids at Halloween: Whereas kids get to grow by trying on masks, acting success for adults requires them to take their masks off, to peel back the accumulated masks that adulthood has layered on, in order to show the authentic face that suits the role. It's scary, the peeling back of the layers, but Paul says it's liberating, too.

So in normal years, trying masks on and taking masks off at Halloween helps us figure out what makes us unique. But this, of course, is not a normal year. "We all look the same," one of my friend's daughters complained shortly after school started. Although my friend remarked that looking alike is the least of our worries these days, I thought her daughter had an important point. This year, giving a kid a mask has a whole different connotation, and taps into a whole new set of fears—of disease, and of death—that can be especially hard for kids to handle. And although whimsical fabric and designs can help, it's really hard to make these masks fun.

Nevertheless, I hope Halloween 2020 inspires kids and adults to try new identities on for size to see what they might grow into. I hear that the new superhero costume is a set of scrubs.

—Deb