The Masks

I walked through the parking lot towards the entrance of the grocery store looking at all the gloves littered on the ground.

I walked past an elderly gentleman wearing a mask and gloves loading groceries into his car.  When he coughed, I skittered to the other side of the parking lot aisle.  There I saw a middle-aged woman with a mask and gloves loading groceries into her car.  She shut the door when she was finished, put her gloved hand under her mask and removed the mask from her face, dropping it to the ground.

I didn’t stay to see what she was going to do with the gloves.  Drop them as well, I supposed.  Didn’t make much sense to me to go to all that trouble and then wipe your face.  Common sense was lacking with that one.

The grocery store was packed.  Whole aisles still missing product.  Two entire aisles were roped off to be resupplied – cereal and snacks.  But what really drew my eye were all the masks.

There were those like the individuals in the parking lot that had medical masks.  But mostly, I saw masks of repurposed materials.

I saw a woman wearing a turtleneck pulled up over her nose.  Scarves wrapped around individual’s faces.  A large hair headband wrapped around a face.  Bandanas wrapped around noses and mouths.  I even saw a woman wearing a sanding mask for protection.

And gloves.  Everyone was wearing gloves.  Gloves I assumed they just peeled off in the parking lot and dropped on the ground.

We’ll get back to “no littering” when this is all over, I guess.

Whenever I have to go to the store anymore, I leave with one thought in my mind.  “Just get done and get home.”

I thought back to when this all started.  The idea of staying at home was questioned – how much home and how much kind of home.

Before the school’s closed, but after the idea of social distancing was first mentioned many people were still going out to eat.  Posting pictures of themselves at bars or out with friends.  At the movies.

In our world, we let the kids hang out with friends at the park.  We encouraged them to stay 6 feet apart and not share their basketballs or footballs with others – but we still let them go hang out. On our street I watched a mother play four square with all the neighborhood kids.

Each day there was less and less.  Until it stopped all together.  Like everyone else, our family became an island.

The first time I went to the store in the midst of all this I saw only two people were wearing masks.  And they were shopping together, so really one unit.

Each trip the number increased.  As fast as the coronavirus spreads, in my town, so does the wearing of masks.  Now I feel I’m in the minority going mask free.

When I am there, I call on advice from Mr. Rogers.  It works, and it is what I have told my kids too.

Although I changed it a bit.  I look TO the workers, the ones helping us in the store.

They are calm.  Only a couple wear gloves.  None of the employees are wearing masks.  They are helpful.  They are smiling.  They are there HOURS a day with thousands of people moving all around them throughout their shifts.  They are well.  They mentally, get me through my shopping trips filled with fearful masked strangers.

I can’t help but think of the long term effects the virus will have on us.  As a population, we’ve adapted to wearing masks and gloves when we are at a store.  How does one decide to stop wearing them?  When the President gives us the “all clear?”  Even then, when will we be truly comfortable at a restaurant, sporting event or concert, masked or not? Aren’t we all going to be thinking the same thing about “that guy” who coughs during church or a movie? 

I came home from the store today and googled the symptoms of the coronavirus.  I began opening and closing my mouth, questioning if I felt sick or not.  I’ve determined that physically I am fine.  Mentally, maybe, not so much.

I’ve decided I’m not looking to the masked faces anymore.  I will look to the store employees, seeing their unmasked smiling faces, looking back at me and helping me.