Pen-demic

  The Maskless Wonders Now that our chief executives and their spouses have demonstrated the hygienic value of wearing masks by spurning them, we can meditate about the symbolism of the “Maskless Wonders.” Both President Donald Trump and his wife, as well as Governor Mike Parsons (Missouri) and his wife have contracted the coronavirus within the past ten days. Whether they are severely stricken is not a political matter.  My prayer is that they are spared severe symptoms. What matters is how their contempt for wearing masks has affected our neglect of this precaution. We know that a public model matters, because the President’s example has spawned national resistance to wearing masks as a precaution against covid. In Missouri we have had vocal protests from citizens of hard-hit Jefferson County, declaring it was a personal freedom to shun masks and brandishing signs stating that Hitler would have dictated such requirements. Apparently it is a kind of free expression to go mask...

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever, Amen.   The Lord's Prayer. The final sentence of the Lord's Prayer acknowledges that power belongs to God more than it belongs to the one who prays to God. It is power that we have a problem relinquishing, and power that we consider our right as free people. It is power that complicates every human relationship, and power that makes us reckless to the point of death. If we think that power is a right, rather than "an endowment" (Declaration of Independence), we endanger more lives than our own. The Coronavirus has seized power from people around the globe. There is no need to claim it is a God-sent pandemic, but it certainly is a test of our ability to yield power by curtailing our social activity. In the United States and Brazil we are flunking this test, because we consider ourselves free and invulnerable people. We do not understand that power is provisional. We must be ready to yield it at...

Tired. How else to describe it. Overwhelmed.  The new normal is wearing on us and on our personas. Wearing masks that hold in the humidity from our bodies.  Wearing masks that become harder and harder to breathe through if we exert ourselves. When it’s hot and humid we don’t even need to exert ourselves for it to become more difficult to breathe.  Breathe in, the mask sucks in against my face – perhaps my seal is TOO good?  Perhaps my mask fits too well to my face? So many options of them – which will be cooler in the heat? Which will stay in place when we talk instead of moving up and blocking my eyes? Which won’t cause my glasses to fog? Which are more flexible?  Which will fit my face the best?  Which will fit a “general face” the best when I make them for others? What do I have already that can be adapted?  Sewing a cotton filter and nose piece inside a colorful scarf?  Attaching a scarf to a mask? Neck gaiters for the guys? Beak st...