“She had blue skin,
And so did he.
He kept it hid
And so did she.
They searched for blue
Their whole life through,
Then passed right by-
And  never knew.”

― Shel Silverstein, Every Thing on It

This beautiful quote has been doing the rounds on the internet and if you never stumbled upon it, I am  glad I put it up here.

The quote makes a lot of us think, not just about love, but about a lot of other things in life. About that person we really liked, but never told them about it, the crazy trip we did not take with our friends. That job that got us excited, but the money was abysmal, so we tucked away those pangs of longing in some hidden closet and continued on with whatever we were doing, halfheartedly.

Ever since I quit my job, I have been told by a lot of friends about how they envy me, because of the free time I have to do whatever I feel like. That does not necessarily make me feel great about the decision I took, but it just surprises me about how many of my friends are stuck doing stuff they do not like. Putting on masks to hide their urges to do things they think the society will not accept.

Everybody is so busy wrapping themselves up in ill-fitting cliches, that they forget who they really are and one never gets to meet the real them. That serious banker who never smiles, could have been a crazy drummer once, but he has cut his long curls away, and his hi-hats and crash cymbals are languishing under the dust in some forgotten cupboard of his childhood home. Those girls will never get to see his wild side. And we will keep meeting such awesome people who are hiding their dreams under forced masks. Masks they are so used to, that they never take them off.

One fine day, we might meet someone, who is perhaps everything we are looking for, but it’s a side they will never show, so we will pass them by and never know.