Once upon a time... there was a town called Whimsical Valley. It was a theatrical place where everyone pretended to be all sorts of different characters. They all enjoyed playing various roles just for the fun of it. A man on one side of town imagined himself to be a knight in shining armour. A woman on the other side of the city idealised herself as a damsel in distress and their appropriate roles drew them together.

In the beginning, everyone relished playing a certain personality one day and something else the next. But after a while their amusement turned into monotonous drudgery and they would play the same roles over and over again. And after a while the people of Whimsical Valley had performed their parts for so long that they started believing in their starry-eyed roles. They found it harder and harder to remove their disguises and eventually their masks started sticking to their faces.

One day a wise magician was passing through town. He saw that the people had trouble removing their masks so he went to the local paper and took out an ad for a free demonstration of his Miracle Mask Remover. “No sticky sprays or messy powders,” the ad read. “Guaranteed to remove masks with continued application.” Almost everyone in Whimsical Valley saw the ad but only a few showed up. The magician understood that most had grown so accustomed to their masks that they no longer believed that they wore them. — Spiritualendeavours.com