I’ve been a little absent on Flickr lately because I decided to take my one and only trip that didn’t involve family this year and go to NYC. I masked and sometimes double masked indoors and when it was crowded outdoors (this photo is from an outdoor sculpture exhibit just FYI and the closest person was well over 10 feet away). I never dined indoors. I did the best I could…but, instead of a typical souvenir, I contracted Covid instead. I guess it says something that I was able to hold out for 2 1/2 years especially considering I work so closely with a population of kids who are often now sent to school unmasked, unvaccinated, and sick all over me. But, I still very much feel that governments are failing their citizens both with lack of basic protections like indoor mask mandates, second booster availability, lack of quality healthcare to all citizens, and subsidies/monetary incentives for creating better filtration in popular indoors spaces. More importantly, we are all failing each other. Because, you shouldn’t need the government to tell you how to be an ethical person and make choices that connect you with others in your community. People have stopped paying attention to the rising rates and variants and have just ignored the fact that they could be spreading this, meaning you literally can’t exist outside your own home without fear of getting it, especially if you are immunocompromised. I happen to be healthy but I just can’t fathom all of the people out there with major life threatening conditions. We’ve created a Darwinistic hellscape where people have stopped caring for each other and are all out for ourselves, which is exactly what those billionaires getting richer want. As long as we are caught up in this tension amongst ourselves and constantly struggling just to survive, they keep making bank.
Additionally, I can tell you from working with children in the schools that the majority of kids seem to be raised with the impression that it’s ok to go maskless if it is uncomfortable even if there is a child with a disability in their class, which is not a good opinion to give someone with a still developing sense of judgement and conscience. I’m very afraid to imagine what the world will look like in 15 years when we’ll have a significant percentage of the world with long Covid who are immunocompromised, and even more so, don’t have any basic empathy towards others. It’s like we’ve all just given up on the future.
So, if you’re indoors and you can easily slip on a mask to protect someone else next to you, why not make that choice instead and teach young ones in your care to do the same? I can tell you, being careful only gets you so far. My mom got Covid with an N95 mask and the only place she went to was the grocery store. On the plane ride home, the pilot told everyone that, although masks were not required, other passengers should respect the wishes of those who still chose to. This is what we’ve now become…a society that would rather harass others that actually care about living a good life, not getting long COVID, and not also infecting others. Though I didn’t test positive until the day after I got home, I’d hate to think of how many people I may have infected if I decided to just stop caring about others. I definitely would have infected the girl sitting next to me maskless.
All of this ramble might sound silly but if it convinces one of you to maybe be a little more careful with others, it was worth it. I shouldn’t have to go through what I am going through right now and neither should all of the other humans who are still doing things like double N95 masking on planes. We make a choice every time we step outside our door and we can actively choose to be kind and know we tried our best. That’s a much better way to live your life.
**All photos are copyrighted**
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