Please Stop Throwing Rocks

Even a hand-made mask like this one (made for us by Lori Vega and modeled by Kathleen) offers more protection against illness than a naked face.

This post originally appeared on the Hearts, Homes, and Hands blog on 2020-06-00.

Well, they’ll stone you when you walk all alone

They’ll stone you when you are walking home

They’ll stone you and then say you are brave

They’ll stone you when you are set down in your grave

But I would not feel so all alone

Everybody must get stoned

—Bob Dylan

If you were drowning and someone jumped into the water to save you, would you try to pull them down with you? Of course not. Even the two percent of people who qualify as psychopaths would not try to kill someone who was trying to save them.

So, let’s take it out a bit. Imagine you are enjoying a sunny day at the lake. You notice a child having trouble keeping his head above water. A woman jumps into the lake and tries to pull the boy to safety. Would you start throwing rocks at the woman? I don’t think so. That would be Pure Evil.

Now the parent you like the most—it’s okay. Everyone gets along better with one parent that the other(s). Now your That Parent—your favorite—is fishing from a pier. Would you try to make them fall off? And if they did, would you impede anyone who tried to help them? No. You would probably jump in yourself to try to save them.

These are not random, silly questions.

If you are one of the people who believes your right to expose your face is more important than a front line responder’s right to breathe, you are actively trying to drown someone who is trying to help you and yours. You are throwing COVID-shaped rocks at first responders and healthcare workers. You could even be shoving your parent into the water to drown.

I’m not questioning your right to go bare faced. You have that right. Where fines are involved, you can choose not to wear a mask and pay the fine or to wear an additional piece of fabric.

But with the right to choose comes the responsibility for your choice. If you don’t wear a mask, you are choosing to risk the lives of everyone around you, including people you love. You will be responsible for their deaths if they die from an infection you chose to spread.

To paraphrase a church meme: It doesn’t matter whether or not you believe in COVID-19; COVID-19 believes in you.

So, please choose responsibly. Please choose to protect the lives of your family, your neighbors, the caregivers who work for me and other agencies, and even me. More importantly, please choose to protect yourself. Wearing a mask is the single most effective step we can take to contain the spread of the virus and lower the death count. Please wear your mask in public.

Yule Party

I work my job all the way to the weekend

Call all my buddies, ask where you been

Let’s get together somewhere, seven o’clock

Wanna pop a top, pop a top

Wann go, wanna roll, wanna rock it

—Phil Vassar

Cosmopolitans are yummy.

Photo Source: Swank Martini Company

Today was the last working day before the Holiday Break at ALE. After work, Suna and I went to a non-ALE event at a former co-worker’s house. It turns out that she is a neighbor and only lives a few blocks away.

It was a really pleasant time, thanks in part to the fact that she makes really excellent Cosmopolitans. I never got her exact recipe, but she told me later that she doubled the alcohol in one of the standard recipes.

There were a lot of old friends whom I had not seen in a while. There were also a couple of people with whom I keep in contact, as much as The Hermit keeps in contact with anyone. And I met another German person whom I had only heard about before—actually I think she is authentic instead of descended like me.

The excitement of the party came when the firetrucks, ambulance, and police flew past. Something had happened several houses down, but we never did find out what. Suna was just relieved that it was next door to one of Beccano’s teachers, not there. When we cleared out (a little later than the party was scheduled to dissolve, only one fire truck remained.

Friday’s Feast

The official Friday’s Feast was off for the holidays, but Sam made up her own:

Appetizer: What is your first thought upon waking in the morning?

I don’t usually have a thought first think in the morning. After grumph, my initial inclination is to reach for Suna. Then I realize how badly I have to pee.

Salad: Of all of the “alternative” therapies available, which is the one you have most trouble believing actually works?

Hmmm…all of them? I don’t put much stock in mainstream therapies either. Good health comes from the balance of mind, body, and soul. Anything that fails to address all three is suspect in my book.

The current cover of my favorite mag.

Photo Source: Shop Notes

Main Course: Name something that you never told your childhood friends because, at the time, you were totally embarrassed about but now are not so afraid of.

I know this sounds like the W defense, but I really can’t think of anything. I find hiding things to be more trouble than it’s worth. I may not always volunteer information, but I have tried to live transparently. When I peed my pants, I didn’t tell everyone, but I didn’t do a Nixon either. If you want to know something about me, ask.

Dessert: If you could subscribe to one magazine and only one, what would it be? (It can be out of print if you need it to be.) And do you subscribe to it now?

The only magazine to which I currently subscribe is Science News, and it is a leftover I will renew because Suna likes it. I also like to read the subscriber-only articles on the web. I’m not a magazine person.

That said, the magazine I really want to subscribe to is Shop Notes.