Okay. Who am I kidding?
I keep telling myself how well I am coping during this pandemic and period of national and global unrest.
Then I look at my ravished cuticles – picked at incessantly.
Then I acknowledge my poor sleeping situation.
Then I realize how often I walk around my house gnashing my teeth.
And then I notice how I numb my mind with hours of online Maj Jong playing with bots.
On the other hand, I have established a great morning routine:
I’m reciting the Jewish prayer for renewal.
I’m listening to each daily entry from the app Calm.
I’m faithfully performing my stretching exercises.
And I’m baking some good stuff like Peanut Butter Banana Muffins.
In spite of all this, I still feel unsettled – thrown about by so many external forces of evil, unrest and disruption.
As restrictions relax, a trip to the grocery store proves both disconcerting and enlightening. I hate the restrictiveness of the face covering but wear it for other’s protection. I’m pushing my cart down the aisles, dodging the plethora of other shoppers. Under my mask, I smile as I pass each one and offer a cheerful hello. Realizing my smile can’t be seen (and smiling with just your eyes is no easy feat), frustration unsettles me.
After all, experts cite 55 percent of communication is visual – when we miss seeing facial expressions, we miss the emotions behind the visual too.
Traditional masks inhibit communication and make compassion hard to express – and communication abnormal, stilted and unnatural. A sense of loneliness, isolation and disconnection ensues.
Voila!
A new project idea strikes me: TRANSPARENT (SEE-THRU) MASKS
They exist. Check out: www.theclearmask.com and Etsy.
Think of moving through your day with your facial expressions normalized and visible? Think of the ease hearing impaired people could feel if they are conversing with a person whose mouth they can actually see?
Getting through this perilous period calls on us to be innovative.
Getting through this perilous period calls on us to be caring of others and caring of ourselves.
As always, it’s about Preserving Your Bloom,
Iris