I thought about saying, “Its hard to wear masks,” but that is not at all true , people wear masks all day everyday. We use them to shield ourselves from others, from what is going on, on the inside. Sometimes it is the mask of “Fine.” “How are you?” we are asked. Our response, “Fine.” It is the socially acceptable answer without betraying any of the real truth. It is way to grease the social communication without having it bogged down by so much emotional content that no one is able to function.
Here is how it might really go. “How are you?”
“We’ll i’m a bit terrified, this virus is killing people, but not enough for many people to take it seriously (51,209). Other people are showing up in threatening gatherings that feel like anarchy. I think the snake oil salesman are offering quick fix solutions and that is making me so frustrated sometimes I’m yelling at the news. There seems to be a total assault on science. I miss my friends. I have had a bunch of things planned I’ve been looking forward to and they have been canceled and that is really disappointing. My Dad has terminal illness and is getting sicker each day. We are trying to treasure each good day he has left. My new schedule is overwhelming. I have lost some weight, so that’s a good thing, but I have terrible tooth/mouth pain that is as of yet undiagnosed and the pain has give me sleepless nights and a little bit of panic (don’t ever read webMD). I’m wondering how this is going to look and what are we going to do next. So I guess I’m fine.
See if we answered the question, “How are you doing?” honestly each time, most people would stop asking the question.
What I meant to say was, “It is hard to wear a respiratory face mask and keep it on without looking like a criminal.” In mid February, I order N95 masks for my family. It took 6 weeks for them to arrive. I watched as they traveled from China with the tracking number I was given. They fit great. They are tight. They have internal replaceable filter. They make me look like Bane, the bad guy from the Batman movies. It is itchy and hot. I have tried some other ones, but this one actually seems to be the best on my face. I bought a fake beard and tried to attach it to give it a more approachable look, but it did not help.
We are talking about what church might look like when we get together. We don’t know if that is soon or not, but lots of people in the government are trying to decided. The one thing that seems true is that we should all be wearing face masks for the next little while and maybe especially when we get together at church, but church is supposed to be the one place where you don’t have to wear masks. It is all very confusing and complicated. I do hope that soon we can all be together and we can take off our “masks” and share because this has been hard and we really need each other.