Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Whether you live in the US or not. The idea of a holiday when you give thanks is a good one. And the US has been examining the origin story of this holiday for many years now. We will, eventually get it right.
I found this picture in a shopping bag of things I brought home last March from my Mom's house. I finally got to looking through what was in there. This turkey has my name written on the back, so it's a really old turkey! There were also letters my mom got from her parents at the end of 1939 and through 1941. She had made it to the US, but they were stuck in Germany. I haven't read through them carefully, but they have to be the last contact my mother had with her parents. There's also a letter she sent to them in late November 1941. It was returned to sender. It must have been on-route when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the US declared war against Japan and Germany.
With that in the back of my head, I can't help thinking about COVID-19. A good friend dropped off a small Thanksgiving feast. Our fresh baked bread in return seems paltry.
But I'm also thinking about the 3 people who died of COVID yesterday in Alaska. No Thanksgiving for them. And an unhappy one for their relatives and friends. And the 24 people who were hospitalized. Their Thanksgiving is also messed up. Or the 553 people who tested positive yesterday. Many of them will get through it fairly easily. Some will get pretty sick before they get better. A few might not get better.
When my son, maybe 9 or 10 years old, did something he oughtn't to have done, and I'd started out letting him know what I thought about it, he'd put up his hand and say,
"Dad, stop That's lecture number 473."
Me: "If you know what I'm going to say, tell me."
And he would.
Me: "If you know it, why don't you do it?"
It turns out that he had all the lectures very retrievable in his brain. And as he matured, his behavior matched the goals of my lectures.
What I eventually realized, was that he knew what to do, but that he wasn't emotionally able to do them.
I'm guessing that not wearing a mask is like that, or like not being able to apologize. You know you should, but you have emotional obstacles to overcome. Masks don't match your self-image of ____________ (fill in the blank). Maybe of a Trump supporter. Maybe of a person who does what he or she wants, not what they're told.
There were a few times while I was teaching that I'd get some unprovoked pushback from a student. When I asked other students, after class, what I had done, they'd say, "Nothing." My sense was that there are people with authority issues. And when people can't vent against the person they're really upset at, they pick another, less dangerous authority figure to lash out at.
That's the only thing that makes sense to me with anti-maskers. After all, the physical act of putting on a mask is no big deal. Bank robbers have no problem with masks. Trick or Treaters have no problem with masks. Millions of Muslim women adapt to face coverings. It's not the physical 'sacrifice' of wearing a mask that's the problem. It's the emotional barriers that are the problem.
I get that people want to go back to some semblance of their old lives. Even if they weren't that happy with those old lives.
The irony is, if we all had been wearing masks when out in public and been practicing social distancing, most commercial businesses could be open now.
And had we all been doing this, and the experts are right, then most things could be open now - with some accommodations - and two thirds or more of the people who have died, would still be alive. Including the many health care workers and low income folks deemed "essential workers."
And if the experts turned out to be wrong, the great sacrifice would have been wearing masks in public. It's sort of on the level of wearing a seatbelt. Or brushing your teeth every day. And given that the numbers of cases and deaths in the US far exceeds most other places where people do stay home and/or do wear masks in public, it appears that masks and avoiding large gatherings do work.
So anti-maskers, just humor me and the others concerned about the health of people in my community and country. Get a mask that marks you as an Trump supporter or an independent thinker or as someone who doesn't believe in masks, but is willing to make a 'sacrifice' if so many others think it's important. It's not like you have to cut off your right ear to help others survive.
I also wish that hospitals could figure out some ways to show what is actually happening in COVID wards without violating patient privacy rights. Some live "COVID-cams" where people can see what's happening behind the walls of the hospitals.
Best to you and all your readers! We had a good Thanksgiving here in the Isle of Wight (where we have one of the lowest Covid cases per 100k in the kingdom now). I just want to take up the idea of 'turkey alternatives' and put in a word on how emotional memory might play a big role in what you’re discussing with the problem of ‘anti-maskers’.
ReplyDeleteI was reminded today how so many hoped with the coming of the 20th Century, that religion & belief would gloriously give way to science & fact – superstition would finally yield to reason.
But it did’t quite work out that way and it’s not because there wasn’t more education than before that date. In regards to what you discussed, I’d have to admit I’ve used emotional validity (let’s call them ‘feelings’) to test and ‘know’ what is true, a bit like: 'If I feel this way, it is true’. In fact, this kind of self-worth affirmation is at the heart of ‘coming out’ or religious conversion. It’s real, felt like nothing gained from a book or classroom.
Let me take this a bit further. If facts (evidence) aren’t valid for anti-maskers, might it be that many (or maybe all) of us see our experience not only as tested knowledge, but likely the most reliable way to grasp what is true for ourselves?
Socrates wouldn't agree this makes knowledge, but hey, he's dead. Likely he didn’t wear a mask.