A Day Without Masks

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

We'll see how it's handled at practice tomorrow night since the county ordinances and orders have been dropped.

I don't think our instructor likes the masks any more than we do, and if he gives the green light to go without, I will be the first to take it off. I've been counting the days since working out with asthma in a mask is a painful experience especially as it gets hotter.

After that, it will be interesting to see how the community center handles it for Tuesday morning. I know no one in my exercise class will cry over losing the masks.

I think all it will take is a few going without and more and more will join in as time goes on.

a reply to: ketsuko

I would love to hear how it goes.

It will not impact my job, because I have to wear a medical mask and other protective equipment, to perform my exams anyway. Not because of fear of disease, but fear of possible DNA contamination.

Except now the mask will be doing double duty.

I am really hoping that the transition will be fast, painless, and quickly forgotten.

Let us know how it works out.

a reply to: ketsuko

Exactly the reason we should have been fighting. Imagine your kid grown up and god forbid without anyone to assist them, what have those people done during this time?

How many fines have actually been paid? How many businesses were shut down from enforecement rather than the restrictions.

Like I said, I feel as if we buried ourselves under a mountain to refrain from climbing a hill that is inevitable. If not in your time then in your kids.

Not just masks, all that we allowed through this ordeal, masks just happens to be the most visable compliance vector.

originally posted by: TheLead
a reply to: ketsuko

Exactly the reason we should have been fighting. Imagine your kid grown up and god forbid without anyone to assist them, what have those people done during this time?

How many fines have actually been paid? How many businesses were shut down from enforecement rather than the restrictions.

Like I said, I feel as if we buried ourselves under a mountain to refrain from climbing a hill that is inevitable. If not in your time then in your kids.

Not just masks, all that we allowed through this ordeal, masks just happens to be the most visable compliance vector.

I feel you frustration. I have been there. Years of trying to get people to see they are not as weak, or as helpless as they would have us believe, and that us little ants could stop those grasshoppers dead in their tracks, if we could work together, but we can't.

We have the numbers to make it happen, what we don't have is the unity. We are not desperate enough. Not hungry enough. We still have material things to lose. Americans talk a lot about how they love their country and their neighbors, but that altruism stops at the front door of their own homes, when the crap hits the fan, resources become scarce, and the belly starts to grumble.

The primordial instinct for survival is not just strong, for most, it is uncontrollable. In the moment, it does not even have to make sense, because your brain is not processing good will, or even good thoughts, it is processing at immeasurable speed, fight, flee, kill, survive at all cost.

Trying to get people to actively resist the path to oppression, when they are comfortable in their homes, with full bellies, and having their thoughts being manipulated by the influencers of their choice, coupled with the fear of losing everything, is not going to generate a lot of people fighting for a better tomorrow, when they are so vested in their today.

Social media has been weaponized and it does not take being woke to realize that. In fact a lot of people that think of themselves as being woke, have fallen victim to the same lies, deception, and modified response and behavior catalysts that the supposed non-woke people have fallen victim to.

It is very easy to see all the faults and failings in others, it is near impossible for most people to see their own, and if they do, you can be sure they will have a ton of excuses for why they are not the problem but everything and everyone else is.

A successful gardener, knows when to plant the seeds, when to fertilize them, when to water them, when to leave them alone, when to harvest them, and when to plow the garden under. Patience is the greatest skill of the successful gardener.

Good to know, whether you are the gardener, or the harvest.

Very interesting.

I just got back from visiting an upscale market, in a very upscale area. Only place I know where to find my relative's favorite Blueberry wine.

Everyone was wearing a mask.

I thought there would be a few, but was truly surprised to see everyone wearing a mask.

This is an area were primarily young wealthy folk live. Some old folk are about, but most of the residents are young.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Monday night practice: I was one of about 3 unmasked.

Tuesday morning exercise class: Only 1 person in the entire class was masked.

The difference? Relative ages of the 2 groups. The first is much younger, 13 and up. I am among the elders there. In the second group, they're all around my age or older.

Masking or not could be partially a function of vaccine access. In the first group, access literally just opened up in the last couple of weeks. If you follow CDC rules, many of them *can't* go maskless yet even if they want to.

a reply to: ketsuko

I agree with you.

I am also seeing a larger number of people that live in affluent areas wearing masks, while very few people are wearing masks in financially compromised areas.

I am sure it is impossible to make simple statements for why that is, because the choices being made are being made by individuals. The dynamics are so complex.

I was out almost the whole day and it wasn't until I was heading home and stopped at a store in a elderly community, that I noticed something I had not noticed before. A elderly couple entered the store, both wearing masks, that is when it dawned on me, they were the first people I noticed wearing masks all day.

I live in rural Florida. Fewer and fewer people are wearing masks daily. To the point where they seem odd when worn, instead of it being the other way around, as before.