Update: Nothing New

 About three years ago, some people started showing up wearing masks. Some of them were just bandanas, some of them were more like the ones we have all become far too accustomed to seeing since 2020. I confess that my initial response to most of these individuals, since they were kids at my school, was to tell them that there was no need for all that fuss. I was pretty sure that if there was a threat the CDC or some other science-related group would let us know. Besides, the connotations of kids wearing masks in urban Oakland were not the happiest. 

Then, for a year, we closed the school and sent everyone home because of the horribly infectious disease that was tearing through our school, our city, our state, our nation, our planet. For a period of time there we were afraid to go outside. Every person, surface, object was a potential hazard. No hugs. No handshakes. 

And lots of masks. The fashion-forward designer versions gave way to the KN-95, without vents please. It was right about this time that wearing a mask somehow got stirred into the ugly political mess that continues to roil on and on. Depending on who you asked, wearing a mask over your nose and mouth was a political statement. You were a sheep or a patriot depending on how much of your face you were showing. 

COVID-19 is still out there. Plenty of people are still getting sick. This is, in part, because of the lifting of mask restrictions. At least that's what people with some science in their heads believe. Some choose to ignore it. I believe that if I had maintained proper quarantine restrictions I might not have contracted the gift of COVID from my wife upon her return from Italy. Happily, being as full as we both are of injections to ward off the plague, we only experienced COVID-Lite. Which turned out to be plenty, thank you very much.

Now, three years after we fled, we are back from Winter Break. Cases are spiking in our area, so we are doing everything we can do to encourage everyone to keep their germs to themselves. Kids, parents, and staff who have spent the past two weeks with the lower half of their faces exposed are being reminded that besides the ongoing pandemic, this is cold and flu season, and there are a couple particularly virulent strains out there doing their work. Why not give yourself a fighting chance by wearing a mask? We've got plenty of them. 

The trouble is that living with COVID-19 has all the sameness as bad carpet. It's just there. Ugly. Reminding us of how we really loved those hardwood floors before we got it. And it's not going away anytime soon. Until we find a way to rip COVID up by the pad and be rid of it once and for all, I'll keep reminding folks to wear a mask. Maybe one over your eyes just so you don't have to look at it either.