Pandemic Thoughts from Papa

Current events of the state of Kansas, the United States, and the world lend themselves to a plethora of topics to be written about. My topic is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), or more commonly known as coronavirus disease (COVID-19). More specifically, I would like to share my thoughts regarding masks. Who would have imagined the controversy surrounding the wearing, or not wearing a mask? Somehow, the simple act of covering your mouth and nose with a mask (regardless of mask type) has created, in some people, a highly charged reaction. My purely unscientific guess is this. One third of the people passionately believes everyone should wear a mask when around others. Another third has dug in their heels and is of the opinion no one has the right to require mask use, and defiantly will not wear them. The final third is somewhere in between. These people wear a mask when they feel it is appropriate and would like for those who aren’t mask wearers to maintain, at a minimum, a 6-foot social distance. I have read and heard of divisive arguments, brawls, and lastly, politization. How is it even possible to make a generic mask (single in color, no characters, symbols or logos) political? Billy Currington got it right with his song lyrics “people are crazy.”

This is where I personalize the topic by sharing my personal situation. It’s 6:15 am, the Friday morning of the July 4th holiday weekend. What was supposed to be a family gathering at the lake, now won’t be. My son (Dad) and daughter-in-law (Mom) will be welcoming their second child (my wife’s & my third grandchild) into the world this coming week. Mom & Dad have taken the necessary precautions during this pandemic but have not stopped living life. They made conscious choices to pick and choose who they have socialized with and designated Dad as the official “shopper” during the pregnancy. As time has been drawing closer to the birth, they’ve tightened their circle of people. Under doctor’s advice, they have decided to refrain from exposing Mom from outside influences for the duration of the pregnancy. As a result of my wife and I being responsible for the first grandchild while Mom & Dad are at the hospital, we made the difficult decision to inform our daughter and my sister that we would prefer them to not come to the lake for the holiday weekend in our effort to isolate ourselves to do our part in keeping Mom & Dad’s family household coronavirus free.

I share this story to simply personalize the pandemic situation. From a personal perspective, I’m not going to tell anyone they should or shouldn’t wear a mask during this pandemic. What I would ask is that you educate yourself and be cognizant that those people you encounter each day have personal situations like ours. And, if you’re not going to wear a mask, do your best to maintain 6-foot spacing between you and others.

May God bless every person on this planet.

Papa – (Monty Matthews)