the other day, as i was getting ready to walk into value village for some cheap retail therapy, i faced the usual dilemma: to mask or not to mask? i peered through the storefront window, trying to read the room inside. as far as i could tell, everyone had a mask on.
oh, wait,
i thought.
i see a maskless man at a cash register — probably 30 years younger than me, but still. uh oh, maskless man is about to leave the store. now what?
i made a quick calculus and decided to risk it. i would be
that person
. i put my mask back in my purse and walked in.
while jurisdictions across the world have been lifting mask mandates, many people continue to wear masks in stores, in coffee shops, in hair salons. we’re all familiar with their reasons — and in case we forget, twitter is there to remind us:
kudos for making the unselfish choice! so great that you care! glad to hear that your child will continue to mask at school — you’ve done a good job, mama!
don’t let the freedumb fighters weaken your resolve.
do people who drop the mask really not care?
the idea that people who want to drop the mask “don’t care” has always struck me as curious. we care, fiercely. we want our loved ones to get the most out of their time on earth. we would die for our children. we just don’t see a masked world as the best possible world for them. most importantly, we see masks as a symbol of persistent and disproportionate fear — and we don’t think that’s healthy.
for the record, i’ve always viewed covid as a serious threat. i’ve never believed we should let it rip. but here’s the thing: a real threat and a disproportionate response can coexist. the contagion of fear and intolerance triggered by the pandemic has always troubled me more than the virus itself.
like carl jung
, i see social contagion as “infinitely more devastating than the worst of natural catastrophes. the supreme danger which threatens individuals as well as whole nations is a psychic danger.” with covid, the psychic danger lies in getting stuck in a loop of fear and thus avoiding the healthy risks that allow us to live full and creative lives.