In The Gateless Gate, a collection of Zen stories from 1228, a monk calls out to himself every day: "Master." Then he answers himself: "Yes, sir." He tells himself to come to his senses, and answers "Yes, sir" again, then warns himself not to be fooled by other people, and gets back "Yes, sir; yes, sir." That's the whole story. The man who compiled the collection says the monk is putting on a puppet show, one mask calling "Master" and another answering. Anyone who takes any one of those masks for the real man, he says, is mistaken, and copying the monk won't help either. You run a show like this too, you just don't do it out loud. One voice scolds you about the laundry and another makes excuses, and each sounds like the boss while it's talking. Today, when one of them starts up over the sink or at a red light, catch it mid-sentence and notice it's one more mask.