George W. Stocking, Jr. explained that to truly understand an object, which is multidimensional, we have to understand all of its characteristics. Not only do we need to understand height, width, and depth, but time (history), power, wealth, and aesthetics.
We have to wonder about our early hominid ancestors’ reactions when they first saw their reflection in a lake or another pool of water. What did this mean for them? It’s impossible to know, but we can conjecture for hours. Mother nature created water as the first true mirror. The idea must have remained in our collective consciousness all of these years to be able to want to mass-produce a “nature mirror” for our own daily use. According to religious historian Mircea Eliade, “If origin is equivalent to power, then "it is the first manifestation of a thing that is significant and valid.”
I believe the mirror represents our human aspirations for social desirability, as well as physical, emotional, and mental self-reflection and self-care. The mirror is how we distinguish ourselves as individuals, and maintain desirability to the collective. We can metaphorically “look at ourselves in the mirror” as a means of reflecting on our morality, and mortality. It’s as if our perception of our physical self is reflective of our inner well-being.
