Down the Rabbit Hole

Man verses Nature and the End of Masking

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DAY 2506-- February 28, 2022
Prompt:“The fear that all this will end.The fear that it won’t.” Rae Armantrout
In your opinion, what are things or behaviors that won’t end in this world?

I wish I was in a better mindset this morning. I think that my entry is going to come across overwhelmingly negative if my dark mood affects my words like I fear it will.

This weekend we learned that for the first time in two years, the schools were lifting the mask mandates, meaning masks would no longer be enforced in the classrooms and on the buses. It has been a long time coming. We have after all, paid our dues. My daughter is vaccinated and has diligently worn a mask in public all this time. I thought, having learned the news of her mask emancipation, she'd have rejoiced. Instead, this morning, she donned the mask as usual - even taking some backup masks for her bag. When I reminded her she didn't need to wear one, she insisted that she was "fine with it". I hadn't wanted to pressure her but it unset me in a very fundamental way. I realized sadly, that my daughter has been conditioned, either by fear of the virus or the simple habit of donning the masks for so long that she can not remember or appreciate the days when they were not mandated. Perhaps she fears another outbreak would bring back the dark days of remote learning? Perhaps she thinks it is what it is expected of good students now? Perhaps the mask has given my shy daughter, another layer to hide behind and it has become part of her? It is hard to know, maybe it is a little of all those things.

I fear it will take longer to shed the masks now and that it will be on some level, some unfortunate "new normal" that becomes acceptable. I for one, am done with living in fear from one viral outbreak to the next. I'm tired of seeing people outside in the parks, wearing masks or driving alone in their car, mask firmly in place. I'm tired of business that tell me I need to wear a mask to enter now, after the mandates have been lifted. I'm upset that my grandmother, who is very hard of hearing, still has to struggle to hear the masked surgeon during her consultation and kept turning toward me for help. I'm done with seeing masks litter the roadside and discarded masks in parking lots everywhere. It may be an unpopular opinion, by in my opinion, I'm done with masking for those of us who have done the vaccines and boosters. I fear there are sectors of the population who will always deem masks as necessary and welcome those same rolling mandates to return with every new iteration of covid or the like.


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Day 3399: February 28, 2022
Prompt: Environmental: “But Man is a part of Nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.” — Rachel Carson: Use this quote to inspire your blog entry.

There is so much about this prompt that triggers me this morning...

We have done immeasurable harm to our planet and precious little to quell those abuses despite our advanced intelligence and technologies. It is the ultimate definition of being short-sighted. We continue to over harvest and pollute our resources without devoting enough efforts to alternative energy resources, plant-based alternatives and conservation. It is hard to even educate oneself because wading into this planet's environmental woes leaves one feeling desolate and overwhelmed.

Floating oceanic trash heaps, rapid deforestation, the increasing footprint of human occupation across wide, previously undeveloped locations all around the globe -- are all flashing, red light warnings that should be heeded with much more concern than our future generations have for them.

There have been enough movies and series about humans tipping the Earth past its tipping point and paying the price. I've never been a fan of those apocalyptic disaster films in part because at the root of the plot, it a moral that this planet is fragile and can only take so much before it revolts, before it breaks in some irreversible way.

I recently started watching the new SnowPiercer series on HBO. The premise is that in an effort to combat a global pandemic, scientist fired some compound into the atmosphere that triggered a new ice age. As a result, the remaining human race is forced to perpetually circumnavigate the globe on massive train called SnowPiercer, until the Earth thaws enough to allow re-population to occur. While I appreciate the unique concept, I found the back story unnerving and uncomfortable. Flashbacks in later episodes featured frightened, masked citizens trying to come to terms with their planet essentially shutting down around them. There was desperation and fear, shame and guilt. Could a scenario like this ever happen? One can almost reason that yes, it seems entirely probable that one bad decision could be the one that finally brings the Earth to the brink.

Our family vacations every summer in the outer cape. The pristine landscape of the coastal forests and massive dunes always brings my heart back to center. It would be heartbreaking to see trash littering those wide beaches or floating just offshore where we have watched passing mobs of seals or witnesses the occasional whale spout on the horizon.