Hide and Seek

This childhood game entails one person hiding while another person looks for or “seeks” out the person hiding. The one who is to do the searching closes their eyes and counts to ten or twenty, or I’ve even heard counts as high as one hundred. This allows the designated hider to find a place where they think they can’t be found.

As adults, we often play the game but with different rules. We hide from one another at the same time — not so much our physical appearance but our true self. We hide our faults, sometimes our likes or dislikes, our political thoughts, and for many, our religious beliefs. In many circumstances, our seeker doesn’t need to count to ten, twenty or even a hundred to see the things we think we’ve hidden. Many of our faults we think we hide are in plain sight. Attitudes unveil our likes and dislikes through the words we say and also through our body language.

I suppose the winner of the game of “Hide and Seek” is the one who finds the one who is hidden. But, ultimately, the one who has been hiding wants to be found, so both win. In the adult game, the one who is hiding also wants to be found — wants to be seen and known with all of their faults, yet still wants to be considered worthy of the search. Isn’t that what religion and spirituality is about? Being discovered and loved for who we are?