Façade, it’s such an interesting word. It’s a false front, something that makes the thing behind it look different. It’s mostly used to reference buildings, but that’s not all it can be used for. You are probably living behind such a shield yourself at this very moment, as much as you wish you could deny it.

Maybe it would be better to compare it to something else, masks, personas, take your pick. Every day we hide behind these masks that we spend our entire life making. These barriers serve to hide ourselves, not so that others cannot see us, but by hiding our true selves.

You are probably saying to yourself right now “I don’t do that! What’s he talking about?” But you know, even if you don’t want to admit it. You act differently around different people in different places. You don’t do the same things at home that you do at school or work. You don’t do the same things at Church as you do alone. You act differently around different sets of friends.

Each and every one of us pretends to be a model of society, a model of perfection. We pretend we have nothing to hide, but we lie, we hide, just to protect ourselves beneath our countless facades. When do you finally take all these shields off and show your true self? Do you ever? I never did.

But now, where I am, very few people have the luxury of such masks anymore. The greatest disaster mankind has ever known has struck the earth, destroying things that we had held dear, splitting the earth itself. It also split us, people themselves… And, as our past shows, different people don’t get along; one always claims to be superior to the other…

Wait. I can see that I’m confusing you a little. I’ll compare this to something else. Let’s think about superheroes for a second, everybody knows Superman, after all. Superman has two lives, he’s the “Mild Mannered” Clark Kent normally. But when evil or danger is around, he suddenly becomes the guy flying around in tights. If you think about it, he has it easy. Both of his identities are on the same “side”. Both fight the same bad guys and both are in love with the same woman. But what if one of him was a villain? What if a soldier fought on both sides of a war, unsure of whom he would fight for next?

There is a war raging now, a war much like the Civil War long ago. Men that were allies, friends and family even, are fighting each-other tooth and nail, fang and claw. Brother fights sister, father fights son, best friends are spilt by this schism. Much like that civil war, this war isn’t a productive war, nor is it meaningful by any sense of the word, but countless men and women have given their lives for this meaningless struggle. We have done nothing but kill.

This entire disaster started as such awesome and terrible things do, in the most inconspicuous ways…