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Not being able to see human faces feels very odd. Yet in my work life, where I meet people (virtually) I’m actually getting more “face-time” than ever because of Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

I work at the University library often, and a few weeks back I struck up a conversation with one of the masked security guards there — and she was required to wear a mask (but not patrons like me). We had a few short conversations about cats, Asian food, etc.

Then she got hired for a good job and had to leave the library. In our last face-to-mask, I asked if she could take off her mask, briefly. And she did, and she had a charming face, and I told her so. Of course, I would have complimented her regardless of her appearance.

But thinking back, I don’t remember her face, but I DO remember the good conversations we had. So it’s kind of like the relationships we have with other FReepers.

But things are opening up here. Last weekend, University of Georgia had their first home game — and the stadium was almost full capacity with mostly mask-less fans.

Maybe 10% of students at UGA are still walking around with masks on (strangely, some even wear masks as they walk alone outside in the sunshine). But for the rest, it’s back to normal.

Of course, the local CITY library (Democrat-run) still has full mask lockdown — which is why I don’t bring my laptop to work there anymore.

I wrote this to someone about a month ago, and it captures the sentiment for me, at least:

I swear. It is the fear I see in people that really bothers me. The sheep-like fear. It is controlling the lives of people.

I rebel against that. It isn’t that I minimize the danger. There is a saying I love, and it is relevant here:

“A ship in a harbor is a safe ship. But that isn’t what ships are made for.”

I feel like I want to say to people: “You may think a human with a mask avoiding others is a safe human, but that is not what humans are made for.”

We are made to interact with each other, to see each other’s faces, to shake each other’s hands, to hug each other. There is something obscene to me about covering one of the most beautiful things in the world with a mask...a genuine and warm human smile. We are MADE to see that. It isn’t insignificant. It means something special. So we should do and see these things.

Not to cower in fear.

If I get the virus, I get the virus. If it kills me, it kills me. I have had a wonderful life on this earth, but I’ll be damned if I live my remaining days acting like a scared sheep cowering in a dark place. I feel in my heart that there are indeed things worse than death, and squandering this beautiful life that God has given me by quaking in fear in a dark, lonely house, well...that isn’t the way I want to go out.

There is another element I find disturbing-they have programmed young kids to the point they obediently wear their masks even if they are all alone playing in a room. That makes me shudder. It reminds me too much of the way The Party in Orwell's 1984 gets people to the point they "think correctly" and by their own action, never even venture into "crimethink" or "wrongthink".