Duty Now For The Future

 A very good friend and constant reader sent me a gift way back when COVID first began to assert itself and we found ourselves searching for ways to combat it. He sent me a pair of cloth masks, emblazoned with the DEVO logo that reads "Duty Now For The Future." Thoughtful, practical and they continue to be in my regular mask rotation each week as I attempt to keep the lower half of my face obscured, not unlike the anti-Batman. 

Now I find myself behind that mask once again, reflecting not just on the long strange trip this has been, but also looking to the future that the mask describes. One that requires duty. Way back when the Spudboys first issued the album that bore that somewhat foreboding title, it was meant as a tongue in cheek warning, as most of their performances were. Forty years later, I find myself overwhelmed by just how prescient this new-wave band from Ohio was. 

As I ride my bike to and from school, pleased that the Bay Area teacher shortage has not fully impacted our campus. We still feel it each time we try and arrange for a substitute for a staff member who misses a day for jury duty, personal leave, or the looming specter of COVID. We continue to knock the tops of our wood laminate desks in hopes of staying safe and covered as we enter the third month of school. The long stares at the end of the week are not usually found on the faces of our teachers until just before Spring Break. We are all doing our jobs that were challenging and difficult before we had to do them in the din of air purifiers. next to the ever present hand sanitizer, and behind the masks that obscure the messages we hope to send and receive to and from our young charges. 

Meanwhile, people across this great land of ours are leaving the teaching profession, for all the reasons they used to, and now fear of being infected dropped on top of that. Replacing those who head for the door has never been an easy task, and fear is not helping fill those vacancies. So here we are, back in the classroom, hoping to bring knowledge and safety to the kids that need it most. Without a net.

Duty now for our future. 

Can I get an Amen? Or someone to cover a first grade class for the day?