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Piece of Mind: Masks Look 'Normal'

Masks have become so very normal these days.
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This isn't an original thought from me, but I want to share it anyway.

It's that I am feeling kinda/sorta "normal" wearing my mask when I venture out there, mingling with total strangers.

Example: My wife and I went to the grocery store this morning. We drove to the store. Parked the truck. Reached instinctively for the masks. Slipped the thing on over my puss. We walked in. Did our shopping and returned home.

No problem.

Indeed, the sight of masks on virtually everyone's faces also is looking normal. Those who walk around without facial covering -- which is allowed these days -- well, they look a bit, um, abnormal.

You know what? I am going to quit referring to this mask-wearing stage as the "new normal." It's looking quite normal to me.

I am acutely aware that one day we’ll be free of these masks. No one wants that day to arrive more than I do. However, until we can be assured by the best medical and scientific minds on Planet Earth that the COVID threat has been exterminated, I will continue to follow the guidelines set out to prevent the infection.

It has hit me already close to home. A dear member of my family got seriously ill from the virus. We could have lost her. We didn’t. She has recovered from that terrible experience and for that I am eternally grateful.

The disease isn’t dead yet. Until someone calls it, makes it official, issues the appropriate declaration, I am going to keep wearing my mask. I also am going to applaud my fellow North Texans who appear to be exercising what they call an “abundance of caution.”

John Kanelis, former editorial page editor for the Amarillo Globe-News and the Beaumont Enterprise, is also a former blogger for Panhandle PBS in Amarillo. He is now retired, but still writing. Kanelis can be contacted via Twitter @jkanelis, on Facebook, or his blog, www.highplainsblogger.com.Kanelis' blog for KETR, "Piece of Mind," presents his views, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of KETR, its staff, or its members.

Kanelis lives in Princeton with his wife, Kathy.

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