Just So You Know

The following blog post she’ll never read is dedicated to an unnamed person who full-on tried to shame me for my mask-wearing stance. Enjoy.

Since the beginning of this pandemic (actually, since way before that), I haven’t had any time off. I have worked, in my office, just as much, if not more than, before.

I have stopped going to the store when I need things. Rather, we keep a list and take turns going shopping, every two weeks or even longer, if we can. I hope that it keeps amounts of people in the store down and helps those employees feel safer. I am not ordering everything online, either. I am trying to keep deliveries to a minimum and waiting a little longer for things when I can. Delivery people need to be safe, too.

I have lost 1/2 of my teaching income, due to people feeling uncomfortable with online lessons, which I completely understand. I want to keep them safe. I’ve had my hours at work cut by 30%, willingly, because I want everyone to keep their jobs and get a check.  Better for all of us to take a small cut than for a couple of people to have no check at all. Plus, I’ve set aside a portion of my remaining teaching income to help fellow artists stay solvent. The arts community is decimated, and I’m fortunate enough that I’ve had enough savings and a husband who’s been able to keep working, and I’m glad to chip in.

For those of you who say I’m “bitching” about people who say it’s their right to not wear a mask, you are absolutely correct. I am. Two years ago, I watched the most wonderful mother and wife in the world take her last breath, and I will never forget that minute. It plays in my head daily, and I will never stop grieving over her loss. If masks don’t really help, so be it, but if I can keep one person from having to watch their mother, father, husband or wife take their last breath way too soon because of a horrible disease, than I am OVERJOYED to wear that mask. I am a big fat lady who had a hysterectomy last year, so you know it’s hot and sweaty. I’m getting some delightful zit action, not to mention the fact that I do have asthma, so I know what breathing fun times are like. I will wear the damn mask around every single person who doesn’t live in my house, and I will exercise my constitutional right to free speech and continue my “bitching” about those who don’t.

I’m not trying to say I’m better; I’m trying to say that I’m putting my money where my mouth is, and I have every right to feel indignant about those who don’t care. This pandemic is not political. It’s a disease that will kill other people. Remember those things? Other people? Those death numbers are actual human beings. Every single one. I’m not saying there aren’t other things that kill people, but for crying out loud, why don’t we care? Good grief.

I don’t get angry very often. I get sad, I get indignant, I get anxious. But people putting me down and saying I’m just repeating some liberal agenda are making me extremely angry. I know that there are many good ideas out there, but I am entitled to my opinion, and I am practicing what I preach. A lot of us are. We care about others, and are trying, every single day, to make the world better. No one has the right to call us bad people or belittle us for caring.

That is all. Go, and be good this weekend. I love you.