In Judaism, I’ve learned that when someone dies they cover the mirrors with sheets. They tear their clothes and sit on low stools. But it’s the mirror-draping that resonates with me. It’s not only so you can’t see yourself, to ward off vanity. It’s to keep the self you were before the tragedy inside the mirror. Not to displace that self, that more-or-less intact self, with this torn, suddenly decaying self.
