NO MASKS PERIOD!

 

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” 
― Terry Pratchett, Diggers

To celebrate or mourn, depending on how you look at it, a year of no common sense and fear buttons being punched so hard by social media and the press that people have grown in to a kind of mass panic over a virus that has a 99.94% survival rate, I am thinking about the ultimate practical joke. I found several websites that make masks with anything you want printed on the them. What if I had one printed up that looks like my face but with pale skin and bloody pus coming out of my nostrils? I could put makeup on the rest of my face when I wear the mask, put fake blood capsules in my mouth and when someone says something I could bite on the capsules, roll my eyes back and start staggering around like a Zombie. I could even attach some fake flies to the outside of the mask. 

What? You don’t like that idea? It’s gross and lacks respect. So what! For this entire year of bizarre behaviors while I watched Constitutional rights shattered over and over, cities burned and looted, suggestions of defunding police departments, people being attacked and vilified for not following the new social norm by refusing to wear a useless mask (me included) and convicted felons who are rapists, violent, arsonists released in to the world because “ they might get the COVID “ I think I might just fit in. Society is filled with Zombies who spend all their time hiding at home while others work long shifts wearing masks with no breaks. The Zombie people stare at little glass screens and attack anyone who isn’t also a Zombie. So, I become a Zombie only more so.

It’s occurred to me that the real lack in our world is that no one has a sense of humor anymore. We’re supposed to be afraid of being politically incorrect. There’s no space to be creative much less a creative problem solver. We’re supposed to be compliant even when everything is based on lies and mandates (. 

As nouns the difference between mandate and law

 is that mandate is an official or authoritative command; an order or injunction; a commission; a judicial precept while law is (uncountable) the body of rules and standards issued by a government, or to be applied by courts and similar authorities or law can be (obsolete) a tumulus of stones. 

As a verb mandate

 is to authorize. 

As a interjection law is 

 (dated) an exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.

A mandate is an official or authoritative COMMAND. I define myself as an American. I live by the law, not by authoritative command. This is not a monarchy or a communist country, at least not yet. I have chosen not to wear a mask. ( News flash : neither my spouse or I have taken any measures to protect ourselves for this last year against any virus or disease. We do not wear masks, do not practice social distancing. We’re both past 65 this year, so in the category of people least likely to survive this virus. Why haven’t we been sick? ) . Decisions are supposed to be made by the citizen through informed consent. My body, my space, my choice. 

How do you show you like something on ZombieBook? You click on the “ Bite you “ button. 

Come on, man! Smile. 

One of the things I’ve noticed is that no one smiles anymore. Everyone is hidden behind masks. How can you see a smile if it’s always covered up? How are you going to recognize friends when you’re out if the face is always covered? So how do you retain a sense of humor when your face, one of the ways you communicate, is covered? And how about children? Does anyone understand what they’re doing to children when they can’t play together, touch each other, laugh and cry or learn about how to interpret emotions when the face can’t be seen? 

We are social creatures. Basically the human race has been partially blinded with no one to help us find a way to see or communicate. I miss going in to the grocery store and talking to the person next to me while we choose our fresh produce. I miss watching people interact with each other. I love the theater of life! And I especially miss smiling... 

In our county 70 deaths total have been recorded, of COVID. More than 90% of those people were over 70 years old, most of those in the 80 years old plus range. Our population is 124,559 people. That means our percentage of deaths is .00056198 %.  My question is doesn’t anyone die of old age anymore? People I am considered old now. I’m not sick. I did not protect myself. How come? Luck of the genetic toss of the dice? How about you look at that number again. .00056198%. For that number our unemployment is now over 10% , children are either sitting at home with heads stuck to little glass screens or sitting in rooms with plastic shields around them and masks on. More than thirty percent of the small businesses in our area have closed permanently. People have been harassed openly for not wearing masks and churches are allowing limited capacity people instead of a full church. No funerals, no weddings, no school dances, no sports, no music recitals or dance recitals, and the list goes on and on. I haven’t even listed the growing suicide numbers, broken marriages, families torn apart, bankruptcy’s, or people who have not been going to doctor’s or dentist’s offices for regular check ups. 

.00056198%

One of my secret guilty pleasure is sitting here, after morning chores, with a cup of tea and listening to this YouTube channel. This one is very close to how I feel, how I react to a world that feels broken and upside down. The narrator has a good voice too.

Q: What kinds of streets do zombies live on?
A: Dead ends!

Please, dear reader, come up for air. Remember 2019 when unemployment was at an all time low, businesses were thriving, friends got together for potluck dinners and weddings, celebrated a life well lived at funerals. Families staid with a member who was dying, held their hands, washed their faces, told funny stories and remembered all things good and bad together and all of it, ALL OF IT, was done without the thought of a mask. People hugged, shook hands, smiled at each other, stopped to enjoy buskers on the street performing music or dance, theater or juggling. We traveled to wonderful places in our country and visited other countries too. 

REMEMBER your life and make a decision to regain it with an open face, NO MASKS. Go to the store to pick up milk and eggs without worrying about who used the cart before you did. And, even better, mind your own business. Stop making judgement calls and harassing people for not being just like you. Laugh more, tell stories, go to museums to look at astounding fine art, hike, walk, help your neighbors, WAKE UP.

Make cookies and take a plate to your neighbor’s house to share without a mask on. Smile when they open the door. It doesn’t matter whether they take it. It’s the fact that you are being yourself again without the bizarre restriction of wearing a mask. It has to start somewhere. Plant a seed of smiles and kindness. 

And STOP WATCHING THE NEWS. Give yourself a break from the deeply slanted news agencies and social media platforms. Watch a comedy. Read a good book. Clean your closets and give what you don’t want away and DO IT WITHOUT A MASK. Buy a cup of coffee for the person in line behind you. Shovel the snow from your neighbor’s driveway and DO IT WITHOUT A MASK ON. Plan your Spring gardens with your children. Let them decide what to plant. Play CLUE or MONOPOLY or GO FISH with your family and turn the TV off. 

Make a fire in the fireplace, cut some branches from a tree, buy a bag of marshmallows and roast them while you sit on the floor with just the light from the fire and tell stories to each other. Live your life and stop obsessing over the things you can’t control. 

Be creative in your choices and LAUGH. Do everything without a mask in the equation and smile as often as you can at the people you see. Life is too short to live the way the so-called experts are telling you to live. 

Get busy and live, love, laugh and be happy...

I am, ever yours, Nancy, laughing...