Missing smiles, more, missing true expressions. 4-23-2021 |
Behind the Masks Vaccinated posters breathe sighs of relief through faded masks with droopy elastic hanging off tired ears, exhausted from hearing confrontational retoric. Masks may stop the germs, but they cannot stop the flow of words or hate. We need a new attitude or new masks that stifle the words that inflame. But I don't ever want words silenced so that won't work. And yet, isn't that already the newest plague? The (Any) opinion not in complete agreement with the masses is cause for dispute, disruption. Mayhem. Impersonal civilized debate is a dinosaur, extinct. Never will all of a people agree. Prevailing opinions are just that. Not fact. History happened. Right or wrong. Erasing (attempting to) it or trying to rewrite it won't change the then. Can't hide it behind a mask. Covid rewrote daily lives, part of a pandemic that was more than a virus of cells. People put each other in cells even as quaranteen made prisoners of us all. Masks hid smiles that may or may not have ever been there at all. Caution begged to learn what lurked behind those coveredfaces. Once, one wouldn't dare enter a bank wearing a mask, now you can't enter anywhere without one. And yet, more than ever, we became aware that smiles rarely reached the eyes. People could hide in brief annonymity. Perhaps, when it is safe to take a deep breath once again, when themasks come off for good: we will be able to look at each other and see not fear, or disdain, but smiles that reach to eyes and expressions of acceptance. |