{"id":1854,"date":"2020-07-23T16:53:37","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T20:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/?p=1854"},"modified":"2020-07-24T13:36:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T17:36:09","slug":"what-happens-to-us-when-wearing-a-mask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/religious-spiritual-life\/2020\/07\/23\/what-happens-to-us-when-wearing-a-mask\/","title":{"rendered":"People of the Mask"},"content":{"rendered":"

My son is now a project manager for a large hospital system.\u00a0 Two weeks ago, he took on the task of getting remote communications and monitoring programs into ICUs\u00a0 so nurses could monitor Covid-19 patients without having to always enter into the patients\u2019 rooms.\u00a0 This has required his team to do in weeks what they normally did in months.\u00a0 It also requires him to now\u00a0 go into offices and hospitals.<\/p>\n

Yesterday his job began early and was non-stop.\u00a0 Finally in mid-afternoon, he got a chance to have lunch.\u00a0 As he was sitting at his desk eating $\"\"$ \u00a0a sandwich, a staff member walked by, stopped, and stared at him.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve never seen what you look like,\u201d the staff member said.\u00a0 \u201cSince I met you two weeks ago, you have always had your mask on.\u201d The staff member, of course, was wearing a mask.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking about this.\u00a0 What happens to us when we have our masks on.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean that symbolically.\u00a0 I mean actually having a mask on.\u00a0 Interactions during my walks have changed.\u00a0 Before masks, if someone was also walking on the other side of the street, we would meet eyes, or wave, or even engage in a socially distanced conversation.\u00a0 It\u2019s much harder to do now.\u00a0 Glances are brief, no talking.\u00a0 The masks have become mini walls that separate us.<\/p>\n

The eyes are the window to the soul, I\u2019ve read.\u00a0 But that isn\u2019t true.\u00a0 Humanity is in the face.\u00a0 The eyes, yes, but also the mouth, the facial muscles; they all tell us about the person before us. When I go out of the house now, I am hiding myself in a way that I have never done in my life.<\/p>\n

On the internet there are now ads for pretty masks, colorful masks, upscale masks.\u00a0I am one with the People of the Mask.\u00a0 I am no longer an individual. The color or style of my mask makes no difference.\u00a0 It is the Maskness that defines us.\u00a0 The individualistic striving for style cannot overcome the ironic unity of the mask.<\/p>\n

The mask, if it is a symbol at all, is a symbol of how the country has changed and how much we cannot control.\u00a0 All we can do is wear a mask.\u00a0 But even with that, there is a qualitative difference in maskness.\u00a0 The upscale mask says one thing.\u00a0 The homemade mask, another.\u00a0 And the bag of masks sewn to health specifications by individuals and given to the nurses my son is trying to protect, means something completely different.<\/p>\n

The masks have a message for us.\u00a0 It is as profoundly prophetic and deep as the voice of Isaiah or Amos. We are Divinely commanded. \u201cLove thy neighbor as thyself.\u201d\u00a0 We must remember that the call to wear masks outside is not so much to protect ourselves, but to protect our neighbors.\u00a0 And they wear masks to protect us.\u00a0 We are safer when we care for each other. The plague is kept at bay when we value each person we see on the street.\u00a0 We all look alike, we all wear a mask.\u00a0 We are all one family.<\/p>\n

(Rhonda Shapiro-Rieser is the CRSL Jewish Student Adviser.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"