My Perspective on Masking
Please forgive me for the play on words found in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, but I couldn’t help it!
EVERYONE is talking about masks, wearing or not wearing them, and why not? In this crazy upside-down, topsy-turvy world, it makes sense to focus on a face covering; making it more important than the state of our nation, right?
Well, what's in a word? Let’s look, shall we?
Merriam-Webster: Mask – a noun;1.a
covering for the face or part of the face, to conceal the identity, 2.anything
that conceals or disguises, 3. A party carnival, etc. where masks are worn, 4.a
person wearing a mask…,5.a likeness of a person’s face and neck; a sculptured
or molded likeness of the face, a death mask…, ah, ha!
For ease of reference, please click on the link below for further definitions:
Is masking a covering or an attempt to cover-up? It can be argued that the play on the word 'masking' is not lost on most of us, and I believe it should be highlighted. It seems to me that the act of masking, or covering-up, is the underlying issue giving many of us the vapors. Medicinal masks, primarily when used in protecting one from a highly contagious virus or non-virus, depending on your perspective, is a good thing. But, with the information we digest daily from our news organizations, whether viewed as misinformation or disinformation is your choice…, but on a whole, we don’t know what to believe.
So what is the intent?
The covering of one’s face for the purpose of disguise, is practiced all over the world and for different reasons. Some cultures use them for rituals, e. g., warding off evil spirits, fertility, hunting, and even medicinal. Mardi-gras in New Orleans and Carnival in the Caribbean Islands, Halloween in America, and the occasional masked balls all use face coverings for celebration to hide behind. Some use masks to hide committed sins we would not otherwise know. Asian cultures have worn medicinal masks for years and for various reasons. There hasn’t been a great deal of focus on the inability to breathe while wearing them, I guess because most know how breathing works.
As illustrated in the many definitions of ‘mask,’ there are practical and non-practical uses. Masks can be whimsical and fun, or at least they used to be outside the clinical sense before 2020. Now the idea of wearing a mask has taken on a dire connotation. Regardless of which side of the issue we sit, the specter of death seems to override our sensibilities. Remember the depictions of masks worn by doctors during the plague in the middle ages? Yeah, the beaked bird one is enough to keep you up at night.
So, until I know better and understand what we’re dealing with in the form of this virus, I will wash my hands, and wear a mask. Bejeweled, if it suits my fancy, clinical with the blue side out, trendy in black ninja, or colorful in flower motifs, polka-dots, or political slogan. I will do this because I want to, not because a Karen or political agenda has forced me. So I, for one, will just wear the dang thing!
For me, it’s a matter
of common sense in a world where common sense isn’t all that common.
Photos courtesy of Firman Kholik;https://unsplash.com/@firman_kholik4 - Alin Luna; https://unsplash.com/@alin_luna - Markus Spiske; https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske - Llanydd Lloyd; https://unsplash.com/@llanydd - Larry Costales; https://unsplash.com/@larry3 - Tom Barrett; https://unsplash.com/@wistomsin
When this passes, and it will, in God’s time,
ReplyDeleteAnd it is decided that there was no need for the
Safety measures that were issued,
I will rather to have been too cautious,
Than to have not done anything at all.
Stay safe
Touche! That's my feeling as well. Thanks for the comment.
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