I Advance Masked

I was about six blocks from work when I had to turn around.
I had left my mask on the dresser at home. The folks at legal have become a lot more vigilant as we have begun to trickle back to the school. Maintaining social distance. Wearing masks. Washing hands. I confess that I had become a lot more relaxed during those days when I might only get past our front gate to check the mail.
Or go for a run.
But I was wearing a mask then. Fogging up my glasses as I gave my lungs an extra test as I exercise the corner of freedom that I can maintain. Like the freedom to tie only my own shoes. Or to wipe only my own nose. The freedom I have had from breaking up fistfights has been extraordinarily welcome. I note that there are frequent and somewhat disturbingly regular fistfights occurring out there in the world about wearing a mask.
There are all sorts of studies done, none of which bother me more than the one from Gallup which suggests that men don't like wearing masks because "they're not cool," or they are "a sign of weakness." Real men don't wear masks to protect them from a deadly virus. To paraphrase author Willard Motley (not Crue), "Live fast die young and don't let anyone tell you wearing a mask will keep you safe."
It is extremely doubtful that the "president" has read Mister Motley, but it certainly seems like a motto onto which he might want to latch. Wandering around without a mask while touring a mask factory may be the most egregious example of his flaunting convention and advice from medical professionals. "Live and Let Die" indeed. Arguing with the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization seems to make so much more sense. The inherent arrogance in assuming that there is no virus to spread because what tiny germ would dare to glom onto this tough guy? Especially if they are self-medicating with experimental drugs and Clorox?
So if you see me, or someone who looks a little like me from the bridge of my nose up, please know that I am most certainly smiling and that I am just as eager as everyone else to be back to those things we know best: tying kids' shoes, blowing their noses, and breathing free.
I figure I'll need to be alive to do that, however.