Who Is that Masked Man?

It is I, a fat old man living at the edge of nowhere in a tin can I call Deck 15.  I started wearing a mask when I go out into the world as soon as it became apparent from from  events in  England or China that the Covid-19 virus could be a serious health threat.  I didn't remove it  when Democratic 'leaders' like Nancy Pelosi and Bill de Blasio told me to go to Chinese New Year celebrations, that there was no danger, because I don't follow the advice of political hacks.  I didn’t  remove it when the fucking moron occupying the White House, whom even fewer and fewer Republicans are calling a leader, told me there was no danger, that everything would go away like a miracle by some date that has long passed, because I don't follow the advice of fucking morons.  

Rather I follow the advice of medical folks who know as much about the current pandemic as anyone, and who have been consistent in their insistence that the virus is a serious thing even if we don't know everything there is to know about it.  I prefer the advice of people who base their statements on facts rather than their feelings.

I continue to avoid large crowds.  I find it a basic insanity that a good way to express one's value of human life, black or otherwise, is to endanger the lives of a lot of people so one can signal one's virtues.  Besides, I don't have much virtue to signal.  I'm just a curious old man who always knew that something like the virus and /or complete political chaos could happen and seriously increase the chances that we would manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory just as we as a species were finally reaching a level of prosperity to feed and cloth and house most of the people in the world. I was delighted to have lived unto a time when  the obstacles to our doing that were our political hardheadedness rather than economic scarcity.  If I should catch the virus and die, the world would hardly be less well off for it, but I'm curious.  I'm curious if we as a species can manage to come out on the other side of this catastrophe and continue to further our progress in the science and technology that allows us to make real, meaningful change, or if we will sink into another dark age.

I have tried not to panic.  I have gone to my favourite coffee shop as often as I can climb out of bed before they close.  (During the pandemic, they are closing at 12:30.). I have gone to the grocery store with its hand-washing stands and arrows on the floor.  I have bought pizza, untouched by human hands, several times a week, and I have continued to buy drinks at a little shop that's as close as the edge of nowhere has to a bodega.  So far we have been spared much of the effects of the virus here at the edge of nowhere, but that could change as tourist season opens up.

Still, I will continue to wear my mask when I go out, and I will avoid crowds, because I want to be able to indulge my curiosity, and because I hope that you, the people whom I am trying to avoid infecting, will live long, prosper, and do great things.  My mask is not any kind of political statement.  I am not ashamed of it.  I would be ashamed if I did not take responsibility for my own health. I would be ashamed if I based my actions on the statements of political leaders who can't even balance a budget rather than on the facts  as best they are known.  I like to think that masked man is at least a bit prudent.