Your reflection in a dark train window at night is the most honest selfie you’ll ever see. No filter, no angle.

A photograph is something you approve before anyone sees it, and a reflection in a train window is not. No angle was chosen, no light arranged, nothing retaken, so you get a face in the middle of an ordinary evening. It is usually tireder and plainer and more real than anything on your phone. Seeing it is a small corrective to a feed full of best attempts.

When you catch it, look for a few seconds rather than away. Try to see it the way a friend would, without an inventory of faults. Then remember the gap next time you scroll past somebody else’s perfect picture.