The character in the mirror.

The ego is an illusion. It is an idealized image of ourselves that exists only in our minds. The ego is a character in a play. We are all students of this stage. Are we memorizing lines, trying to dance in time to the rythm and the ryme? ...Or are we writing our own script and mending our own costumes? "What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather, indicates his fate." Thoreaux said that. "As a man thinketh, so he is." I can't remember who said that...google it. We all choose our own role. whether it be the king or the peasent, The master or the slave...
The ego is a reflection of who we imagine ourselves to be, who we aspire to be is what we become. Who am I? I am I. to be self...pure self...is to be alone. Only when we are alone do we take off our mask and our costume and slip out of that role, whatever it may be, and become truly ourselves.
Are we puppets? Outward manifestations of some omni-present puppet master in the sky, or are we masters of our own fate? Are our hands instruments of our own free will or are they subject to the whims of some Omni-present puppet master in the sky?