Masks and Mindfulness
My second pandemic birthday coincides with the date that mask restrictions will be lifted in our area. Of course. It feels like each change in the pandemic makes the maze a little more twisty to navigate. We had a great system with takeaway, knew which restaurants took masking seriously, and now we need to see which ones will keep up masking because there is no way to know whether or not someone is vaccinated. The only thing we know is whether or not they’re wearing a mask.
So.
We’ll figure it out. Either we’ll get takeaway because one of the restaurants we’ve been patroning will continue to mask, or we’ll skip the takeaway and eat cereal for dinner instead. Cereal and cookies. All things tan.
Because we’re still masking. Because careful is cool. Because it feels right. Because we like to live in a zero regrets zone, and removing our mask—especially indoors—would fill us with regrets. Emphasis on the us. We’ve read. We’ve thought. We’ve decided. And we know everyone else is doing this, too, and may come to a different decision. We all see the world through our invisible lens.
Ten Percent Happier had a great piece on predatory listening, which in blog form would be more predatory reading. It’s that idea of forming how you feel about the words on the screen (or the words coming into your ears) before you’ve read the words on the screen or heard the words. It’s forming your response before you even know what you’re responding to.
Every stage of the pandemic has been a whirlpool of predatory reading—myself included. It includes listening or reading “with a hypercritical focus rather than with curiosity. If I don’t pay attention, my mind switches into offense mode, poised to build a case, selecting only things that validate my narrative.” To continue to mask or not to mask. Most people—like the election—have already decided what they’re going to do. They relax into reading what confirms their decision. Form arguments while reading (or, in some cases, before reading) what they suspect or know goes against their decision.
I like the end thought in the article—how to get out of the cycle of predatory listening and reading. It was food for thought in stressful times.
8 comments
Our local gas station/convenience store has already dropped their mask mandate for customers. The clerks seem to still be wearing masks, which is good since they also prepare food.
I am not sure when I’ll be comfortable without a mask now.
I hope you get to enjoy a lovely birthday dinner, even if it does consist of tan foods.
I feel like predatory listening/reading is a far more insidious plague than Covid. I blame Rush Limbaugh. And headline writers.
Masking is so touchy. We are still masking all the time as well. It is an easy decision for our family because we have young, not yet vaccinated kids. Because some places are still requiring masks and others are not, and some of the places requiring them don’t have anyone enforcing it, it feels like we are right back to last summer when we couldn’t really go in anywhere. Because while I am vaccinated and places are open, I can’t feel good taking my kids in anywhere. Not that we went many places.
I hope your restaurant of choice is masking. But cereal and cookies are a solid back up plan.
I’ll feel a lot better when my 14-year-old gets his second shot, which is already scheduled. We’ve been so careful for so long, and we’ll obviously still mask up whenever possible, but I really hope I won’t feel as anxious all the time.
I’m insanely angry with the CDC regarding the new mask policy. We just started rolling out vaccinations for children over 12, children under 12 are very much a vulnerable population, and we know that the majority of adults in the US are still not vaccinated. Never mind the world. Yet the answer is to drop mandating masks, with some states banning them in the K-12 setting. I can’t help but feel like it’s a form of population control, with allowing a virus to cull so many, all in the name of “freedom.”
We will continue to mask, with us already having conversations about individuals who aren’t masked and how we can’t trust them not to be infected. When vaccines are approved for children under 12, both kids will be vaccinated. Given that 2 new coronaviruses just made the leap to humans, this is the new normal. (https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/two-new-coronaviruses-make-the-leap-into-humans-68783?utm_campaign=TS_DAILY_NEWSLETTER_2021&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=128649639&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–T0g095A3R8T50dNOA1ehumS9MKq_qIG7AC6wRLR8hJOCHUGSF6Tix1Yhlps_fwjXcXhiAkNOuvdEg6OwFPC9uVre7sra7jQshKTee9KiLrJKy6iA&utm_content=128649639&utm_source=hs_email)
I feel the same as Cristy. California is foolish if dropping all restrictions in a few weeks. Unknown yet what the requirements, if any, will be for schools. Meanwhile our school district isn’t requiring staff to. E vaxxed and isn’t tracking who is. And their plan is to follow requirements—and no more. So if our state doesn’t require masking in elementary schools this fall then we could potentially have unvaxxed teachers in the classroom, along with unvaxxed kids any of whom could be transmitting covid. Great. I’m already very reluctant to send my kids back with the current (inadequate, based on the outdated idea that transmission occurs mostly via droplets) requirements, and the thought of sending my kids, who can’t yet be vaxxed, back into the classroom with no restrictions keeps me up at night.
And even for my vaccinated self, I’m very not looking forward to potential covid transmitters breathing down my neck in line at the grocery store, etc. now that social distancing will also not be required.
The CDC reallllly fucked up, and our governor is putting millions of residents at risk by changing our requirements to align with the CDC because he doesn’t want to be recalled.
I agree with all the above comments…lifting the mask mandate was a bonehead move. We are nowhere near the percentage for herd immunity as a collective, I think our state is at just over 1/3 vaccinated. And people don’t get it…you can still be a carrier even when fully vaccinated. And vaccinated people (mostly with the J &J vaccine) are still turning up positive with Covid, though they aren’t getting as sick.
Luckily around my immediate area it seems most places are still masking employees and most people are still wearing masks, although I have seen some people without. The hospital where I worked is still pretty locked down. Although my oldest works at a doctors office, and they had a few people last week refuse to mask up. The doctors instructed them to cancel appointments if people didn’t want to mask, and one guy actually started a bunch of crap with them in the office about it so they had to refuse to see him as a patient at the practice ever again.
And all the violence happening as people go back out in the masses…it’s so awful. No one knows how to act anymore. And now with the cicadas out, I’m content to stay home.
I live in Phoenix, AZ, and while out and about running errands this weekend, I noticed that few businesses are requiring masks anymore and only a few people are wearing them. (It was weird going into Target and seeing most patrons maskless, although the employees were all wearing masks.)
I have some friends of young kids (under age 5) who are extremely concerned and basically not going anywhere indoors because of the lifting of these restrictions. Our sons’ school district kept mask wearing and social distancing in place through the end of the school year (last week for us) but we don’t yet know what the set-up will be for the fall.
You guys are now so far ahead of us with vaccinations, I am watching to learn what the future will be – both here (inevitably) and when travelling the world. This is the stage where it’s still all uncertain, I guess. I don’t envy you having to navigate it.
(And I am off to read that article – it sounds fascinating.)