The Mask
“I believe that every individual is different from every other individual in every conceivable way.” William F. Buckley Jr
The annual purchase of your child’s Halloween costume is a tradition, like most these days, has morphed into a 4 day, budget exceeding exercise for the little ones. Today’s children no longer tolerate mother’s hand sewn replicas of a Superman disguise. A cat mask isn’t going to cut it, when the option is a tailored, perfectly fitting Ninja Turtle outfit available for only $57.49.
If you have missed the news for the past four months, because you have been working diligently on completing that cedar closet in the guest room, we are in the middle of a pandemic. I say middle, because of the quote that opened this predictable diatribe emphasizing the uniqueness of all of us. This masquerade of tolerance and isolation is over. If I was clever, I would have put that quote in the middle.
For those who thought the title was a movie review of Jim Carey’s 1994 movie,“The Mask” I might ask you, why would anyone be writing a review of a 26 year old movie? Now if you thought I added a “The” to Mask, and I was reviewing the 1985 movie “Mask”, my question remains the same though reviewing a 35 year old movie might seem the sanest of all ideas to the multitude of Cher fans.
The last major virus to infect the world was the Spanish Flu, in 1918. It touched 500 million people or approximately 1\3rdof the world’s population. A lot has happened since that world wide disease ended. The invention of the toaster oven, the telex machine and the mood ring have all helped society to move along.
I guess the problem with events that happen every hundred years, is we tend to forget how to prepare, manage and implement ancient plans. The forgotten lessons of survival from scrapbooks, that were tossed away when we cleaned out our grandparents cupboards, hoping to increase the property value \ our inheritance, by hiring professional stagers to make their living room look livable.
The primary mode of communication was the telegraph in 1918, so if you knew the Morse Code, you could warn others of impending death. A newer invention, the telephone was gaining popularity, however since the first transatlantic call was not going to be made until 1927, it wasn’t going to help this global crisis. Unconfirmed reports declare the first transatlantic call was about a great deal for duct cleaning.
At the risk of sounding trite, I would suggest that our options for immediate communication today, have slightly improved since our last pandemic. The problem is every individual is different and they deliver and receive information in their own personal way.
When you ask 10 people what being “in love” means you will get 10 different answers, based on their experience. Some flash back to a high school dance, while others seriously question the existence of love, because somebody done them wrong.
In developed countries like ours, citizens ride the spectrum of religious and political beliefs, where faith can trump logic, and my logic trumps your logic, because I read the New York Times. Couple this with generations of family values, and cultural heredity, the chance of two people seeing the same rose, and having the same reaction is damn near impossible. Which leads us to the title of this blog The Mask. In theatre the Mask can represent Comedy or Tragedy. This pandemic is unfortunately a little of both.
Masks save lives! Currently blending this fact with your opinion is causing more headaches than your wife at bedtime. Individual rights are being burglarized, and principled intellects resist any personal infringement on God given human rights is a free society.
Masks save lives! I believe that if this was telegraphed to a farmer in Texas in 1919, the family would still be arguing this statement at the dinner table today, as after grace, this was part of the family’s conversation when dessert arrived. Grandma wore a mask in 1918, but only to avoid putting lipstick on every day. Grandpa knew if he was ordered to wear a mask, the next logical step was to take away his gun.
Mask Save Lives! Your brain is a lambyrinth chiseled with thoughts and life lessons, feelings and suppressed emotions that define your very being. That B minus you received for your grade 2 leaf collection lingers.
Masks save lives! But empathy cannot be taught. You either have devout concern for others or you do not. You calculate each situation, sprinkled with the occasional morsel of conspiracy theory, and act accordingly. For extremists, you know when football teams go into a huddle, they are talking about you.
Mask Save Live!. Resistance to wearing seatbelts, wearing bike helmets, and blocking internet sights from your children were originally perceived as another life inconvenience, but every individual is differnet from every other individual could only act in their individual way. New only becomes the norm when crowd mentality overwhelms personal ethics.
Masks Save Lives. With the link below, I sadly conclude we never stood a chance against this pandemic. If our population, had stayed locked in, wore masks and social distanced for 2 consecutive months, this virus would have died. Vulcan logic, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”, doesn’t translate well on Earth.
Yes Forbes Magazine and others have shared indisputable conclusions about eradicating this disease, but the inconvenience of wearing a mask, on any day but Halloween, is simply too difficult for too many to consider, even if it was telegraphed for you in gold letters.
Masks Save Lives!
Cue the Blong. “Everything Counts” pretty well says it all…
Breaking Well 
Masks save lives…