Even Now I May Still Mask Up. Call Me Prudent.

Prudence (noun) from the Latin, prudentia, meaning to see ahead.  The ability to govern oneself by the use of reason and foresight.  One of the Four Cardinal virtues, along with Justice, Fortitude and Temperance   --virtuefirst.info, et al

I’m not quite ready to fully discard my mask, not just now, not just yet. Even though, vaccinated, I have nothing that requires me to mask up.   

So, last Saturday when I went into Starbucks for a large dark roast, I still spoke my order through the confines of my jet-black K-94 mask. Last Sunday when I led worship at the church I serve, still, I kept a cloth mask affixed to my face, save for preaching and praying with the congregation. I will absolutely, positively keep wearing a mask for the foreseeable future when visiting with my friends and their one-year-old son Ellis, whether we are inside or outside. When I pay a pastoral call to the bright-eyed parishioner who lives on the memory care unit of a local nursing home: yup, I will be masked. And when I visit with my friend whose immune system is severely compromised, I will have a mask at the ready.

I guess you could say I’m being prudent. Careful. Cautious. Considerate. I hate to admit to this seeming timidity, as I imagine some folks might see my continuing use of a face cover, after I am fully vaxxed. Yes, I know like everyone else in the United States, that two weeks ago week the Centers for Disease Control issued brand new mask recommendations in light of the roll out of the nationwide vaccination program and the hard science that proves the vaccines’ efficacy. The CDC’s new guidelines are simple and clear, stated right on their website.

“If you are fully vaccinated, you can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic. Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.” Governor Baker affirmed that new directive and so, last Saturday morning, May 29^th, all of us who were vaccinated in the Bay State could enter back into the world sans mask. The exceptions to this rule include hospitals and health care settings, congregate living facilities, prisons, and public and private transportation settings.

It will be a treat to see folks’ full faces once again.  See smiles and listen to speech unfettered and play sports without an annoying mask and hug and kiss loved ones and once again begin to return to social normalcy. I’m already maskless around my vaccinated family and friends. That liberation has been a Godsend, especially for me who lives alone. It’s like a miracle in a way. People coming into and even staying overnight in my home again. It is amazing to hear other voices in my house, to not feel such isolation, as I’ve experienced for more than a year now.

I know my mask hesitancy is not fully logical or rational.  I imagine my more conservative friends or readers might even deem me a liberal snowflake, one who is fragile of spirit. I trust the science behind the CDC’s new rules, absolutely. My head tells me to just quit the mask and to let it go. And like everyone else I am sick of all the little annoyances that have accompanied our nationwide mask up. Having no mask in the car or having 167 masks in the car, as I seem to.  Having to put up with “maskne”, facial acne breakouts that many folks have struggled with.  Buying a mask only to discover it’s too small and barely fits my now chubby face, from all my additional COVID poundage.

I am ready to let go of all that but in a little while, okay? Not so immediately, not so swiftly, not so quickly. I know I am not alone in this reluctance. I talk to lots of folks who also plan to still wear masks outside and are still not ready to eat in at a restaurant and are still holding back from coming to church and are still being very cautious. They remember that COVID has killed more than 18,000 people in Massachusetts, 600,000 in the United States and almost 3.5 million worldwide.  I don’t think it is cowardice or wimpiness to consider such stark statistics when discerning how each of us plans to go about life now.

We’ve all lived in this strange and weird and scary COVID life for a very long time.  When the pandemic state of emergency, declared by Governor Baker on March 10, 2020, ends on June 10^th, it will mark a sobering statistic. That we have endured lockdowns and economic cataclysm and huge social disruptions and illness and death for some 15 months. That’s a good chunk of time. That’s why I think it’s okay if me or you or anyone needs to take extra time to get used to our “new normal”, whatever that will look like.

When it comes to masks I plan to try and be extra kind and patient and compassionate with all those who, for whatever reason, will keep on wearing a mask.  My faith teaches me that mercy and love should mark all my social interactions, with friend and stranger alike, and yes: with the masked and the unmasked too.

Go ahead. Call me Mr. Prudent. 

For the time being, that’s where I choose to stand in this still crazy and odd post-COVID, not all the way there yet, world. To mask or not mask? That is up to you.  That is between you and your conscience and your temperament and maybe even your God. That is the most personal of choices. I respect that.

I pray all of us will respect this choice as well.