Have you ever been entrusted with a secret that yearns to be told, but you can’t seem to find the ears to listen?

What a strange predicament that is…

To speak and speak, but for your words to fall on deaf ears.

You see, I met a man who’d been entrusted with a royal secret that had haunted him since a time he could no longer remember.

But something changed…

He’d been cut open, and from his wound, the secret clearly spilled.

“The thing is,” he said: “I wear a mask and this mask is a heavy one. 

I try to take it off again and again, but when I look, right back at my face it is.

This mask wants to be seen. It wants to be heard.

It screams to whoever’s around: PAY ATTENTION TO ME.

There’s something dark about this mask though… it NEEDS to be seen.

It NEEDS to be heard.

And it NEEDS to be right.

But for that to be so, others need to be wrong.

So it says things to make sure it stays that way. 

It educates. It preaches. It makes jokes. 

…Sometimes inappropriate ones. 

…Ones that hurt others.

But the thing about this mask is, it’s not all bad… 

It’s just misunderstood.

It has a purpose to serve, and it serves it well.

Its purpose, you wonder? 

Pretty simple really… To play the role.

The role of a warrior. The role of a healer. The role of a king. The role of a magician. 

But its biggest role? 

The role of the one who pretends to know…

That’s the show it puts on. And it plays it well.

So well, in fact, that it’s had me and the whole rest of the world convinced.

That is… until I was cut open, and that secret spilled.”

So this is for you, from the Masked Man with the Royal Secret – if at any moment you begin to take that mask seriously…

Just remember, it’s only playing a role…

A silly role… in a silly game…

And the show must go on.