Like just about everyone else, I've grown tired of wearing a mask.
My ears hurt from the pull of elastic. Some of the masks I've tried over time were actually painful. I can't wear lipstick under one so there is no point in wearing it but I used to wear lipstick most days. The mask elastic also gets in the way of earrings, so I stopped wearing them. Sometimes your sunglasses and the elastic tangle. I feel like my nose has been tamped down from mask pressure, although with adjustments this is slight rather than oppressive. One health care worker who wore a mask eight or more hours a day for months told me that she seems to have permanently lost hair from the friction of the rubber that was holding hers to her head. Someone else showed me how the skin on their nose was damaged.
Yet another friend (unvaccinated) who I finally saw in person at an outdoor restaurant after a three year absence told me she was not wearing masks because they are not good for your breathing. Well, she lives alone, drives alone, and is retired. She likes to communicate by e-mail. She likes to do yoga on zoom classes. She likes to order things on-line. She's a natural loner. (And also full of fears about eating the wrong foods.)
I do think my breathing has suffered from wearing a mask. Over time I realized that with the face covered I'd stopped smiling. Maybe I don't have much to be smiley about. I also realized that I was pursing my lips under there while breathing, so obviously there's not a free movement of air under there. I have rushed outside at times in order to take a break and breath more naturally.
Still, I think wearing a mask is the least we can do. Still do.
While some people are mouthing off about their freedoms, they seem to be situated in selfishness.
I've grown angry with the non-compliant who seem to be using defiance in public places as a form of protest against government control of their lives.
Bla Bla Bla The Constitution. We are not living in 1776. There's all sorts of things about our lives in 2022 that no-one, not philosophical Thomas Jefferson, soldiering George Washington, or even the very inventive Ben Franklin could have imagined in their time.
Most of these non-compliant people are immature, some are ignorant, but often it's all about them and their 'rights'. They don't care about killing other people. They will not pay your hospital bills or for your funeral. They won't care if you're off work sick for too long to keep a job or if you loose your housing as a result of dire finances. They don't care if you loose your parents, your partner, your child becomes an orphan. (One of my friends and his wife both have long Covid. They got their illness pre-shut downs on a cruise that went back into port early since so many people on it were ill. His wife was in intensive care and almost died.)
And as for government control of their lives, well, have they ever heard of We The People? Sorry to say, some of them are entirely dependent on the government and charity or their parents, so this rebellion may be about their personal frustration with being stuck. We have a flaming epidemic of Anti-Social Personality Disorder.
I've had one bad experience after another with this type in the last few weeks.
First, I ventured out to a non-profit run location in order to check in on a class I started before the shut downs. I was told that this place had gotten special permission to reopen and restart classes because while they had administrative employees who were paid by a governmental agency the location was owned by the non-profit. However to get in you had to show that you were vaccinated. Each and every time you showed up. At the reception desk they were keeping careful track of who was coming in and why.
Once in the class, I noticed that most of the other students were not wearing masks. The following week I didn't go in because I needed to buy supplies and had not a moment to go shopping. The week after that I did show up and there I was with the teacher and one other student. Where was everybody?
There had been someone who was vaccinated but had an active case of Covid and came to class anyway. As a result a heath scare required that everyone else be called and so on. By skipping that week I had apparently not been exposed. Close call.
Then I attended a lecture at a library. A librarian had personally invited me to attend this lecture and when I got there, well, there was the speaker, the librarian, me, and some library employees as the audience. I root for the person who is just learning to speak in public; this speaker was mostly enthusiasm for the subject. She rushed through the presentation, speaking too fast. She was barely understandable. It was over quickly. To get home I got on an MTA bus. When I got on I saw that the other passengers were all wearing masks and seemed to be social distancing as well. Public buses, like planes and ships, are not well ventilated. Then over the next three stops the driver allowed eight passengers on - five of whom were carrying skateboards - on without masks. They stood breathing over everyone. One man, Spanish speaking, urged his unmasked wife to sit next to me. I wouldn't budge. (The three seniors I know of who died of Covid, all in the their 80's, were Mexican-American. One was the father of a friend. Two were a couple who had just gotten their citizenship. I met them a few times at a place I volunteered.)
The driver was not wearing a mask. I asked her why she had let these people on. THERE WERE FREE MASKS! "Tell them no mask, no ride. Stop the bus and call the police to have these people taken off this bus!" I said. But she was no example.
Who sat next to me at one point? An unmasked man in a wheelchair with one leg missing. Diabetic. High Risk. I asked him why not. He mouthed off about how Covid was all Lies and started on the "I believe in Jesus." rant. Well, perhaps he can't wait to go to heaven and see Jesus but I'm not ready. His righteousness is Narcissism.
Ignorance personified.
I actually felt like I had to stay home for a few days after this ride. I was waiting to come down with something.
My allergies kicked in. Over a few days time I was itching all over. Something was in the air, possibly from tremendous fires elsewhere. Also I got bit - probably a spider - and had a swelling on my arm that took a few days to go down. My breathing was short. I could just imagine how bad it would be if Covid set in.
Finally I went to another library to return some books. I saw half the people in the place including a woman and her daughter were on the free use computers without masks. So I asked the librarian, in a loud voice, "Are we mask optional in here now?" She said yes. So, a couple days later I went in and when my hand-sewn mask slipped off, I didn't pull it up. At least this place has high ceilings and a feeling that it's airy. I chose an area where there was no one else sitting. Suddenly a security guard approached me and handed me a free mask.
"We're back on," he said.
"I don't mind at all," I said. But a couple days ago I asked and was told by a librarian that masks were now optional."
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (as my grade-school friend Annie like to say) I toyed with the idea of getting another vaccination. I do not want to mix brands. My booster was six months after my first shot and is now nine months ago. This is where my resistance is. I got the Johnson, which was available a five minute walk away when the pharmacy a two minute walk away was overbooked with appointments and so was the one a half hour away. I suppose I would have willingly taken whatever they had at the time, but now I want the Johnson again and am told that cannot happen.
This is the DOLDRUMS. I relearned what that word meant watching a film about women who rowed across the Pacific ocean. The doldrums is a part of the sea that sailors get trapped in. Time and resources go by. Heroic attempts to push past it, go through it, and come out the other side to navigable waters, are usually fraught with frustration and are difficult psychologically.
If masks are actually a whole lot of false teaching and expense for nothing, which I don't agree is true, then at the minimum they do help us feel we are doing our part to end the ongoing crisis.
So, if you've come this far, wear one when you are indoors in public spaces.
C 2022 Christine Trzyna
