Wear the Mask

When my sister was born in the early 60s, she arrived home from the hospital in my mother’s arms, and subsequently traveled in a car bed when we went for Sunday afternoon rides. Now, babies can’t leave the hospital without proof of a properly installed car seat. Times change, knowledge changes, and a community changes its practices based on what they learn about health and safety. It’s what we do to keep those we love safe.

 

The charming Henry Kyle Shade, our first grandson, is now eighteen months old, and he’s fascinated with how objects fit together. When we get in the car, he doesn’t fuss about being strapped into his car seat, especially if I let him try to buckle the top buckle – it’s all he’s known. It’s what we do to keep him safe.

 

The delightful and determined Elizabeth Holiday has now entered her third month of kindergarten, and her body has begun to adjust to her new schedule. She didn’t fall asleep on the bus ride home at all this week! Each morning, she gathers up her backpack, water bottle, and scannable ID badge, and then she picks out which mask to wear for the day, choosing between face coverings decorated with rainbows, unicorns, or slices of pizza. She doesn’t fuss about putting on her mask – it’s all she’s known since beginning kindergarten. It’s what we do to keep her safe. And it’s also what we do to keep her community of rambunctious five-year-olds, school bus drivers (bless their hearts), teachers, janitors, principals and cooks safe.

 

Ah, the mask. Who would have guessed that the most debated political symbol of 2020 would be a humble face mask? Or that the question, to wear or not to wear, would cause such controversy. Actually, a careful student of history might have anticipated the reaction, for as Christine Hauser explains, there is truly nothing new under the sun. 

 

In the 1918-19 influenza pandemic, “medical authorities urged the wearing of masks to help slow the spread of disease,” and, like today, some people resisted. Hauser tells of a Mr. Cocciniglia who was arrested for not wearing a mask, and told the judge that he “was not disposed to do anything not in harmony with his feelings.” Déjà vu, anyone? As Hauser explains, “masks became a scapegoat, a symbol of government overreach, inspiring protests, petitions and defiant bare-face gatherings. All the while, thousands of Americans were dying in a deadly pandemic.” 

 

On July 8, 2020, Dr. Joshua Scantarpi of the National Strategic Research Institute put it this way: “Several recent studies have demonstrated that universal mask wear reduces the spread of COVID-19.” While I’m sure I can dig up some kind of study that refutes Dr. Scantarpi’s comment, the vast majority of scientific research indicates that wearing a mask can save lives – potentially my life, your life and the lives of others. 

 

Here’s how I’m looking at it these days. If there was one action I could take that would be minimally uncomfortable for me but 100% effective in protecting the life of another human being, would I do it? Of course. Even if it was only 50% effective, even if only 25% effective? Yes. I wear a mask for the same reason I buckle Henry into his car seat, not because it’s the law, but for the one day when someone blows through a red light and plows into my car. 

 

In these days of COVID-19, some have chosen to forgo mask-wearing for a variety of reasons: disbelieving the science, following the example of another, political expediency, or, perhaps like Mr. Cocciniglia, just “not disposed to do anything not in harmony with [their] feelings.”

 

When having difficulty with a cell phone, we’re advised to make a “hard reset,” an action that clears all the memory associated with the hardware and updates to the new version. Now is the time for a mask hard reset, a time to erase the memory of the early questions or of the desire to save face politically. Reset today. Wear the mask. It’s what we do to keep our community safe.