Inviting Grief to the Table

How staying present with difficult feelings transforms absolutely everything

The Matryoshka doll is a symbol of a strong Russian matriarch. Photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash

The first time I wore a cloth mask to run errands, I felt an ache in my chest. It was a jumble of feelings: embarrassment, awkwardness, anger, sadness, and resistance. It didn’t help that the mask I had was too big and that some people without masks seemed suspicious of me — at least that was my perception.

Weeks before, when the CDC recommended that people who believed themselves to be healthy not wear masks, any time a person walked into a store wearing a mask — especially medical masks — it felt jarring. Intellectually I knew these people were likely healthy and just trying not to catch COVID-19 but my nervous system spontaneously reacted as though they represented a threat of some sort.

Now that it is common knowledge that wearing masks can help reduce viral transmission by the wearer (rather than the other way around) we should all wear masks in public. I wish Oregon’s Governor Brown (and all Governors) would mandate masks in public. Such a mandate would increase our chances of flatting the curve expeditiously and offer a return to life without masks sooner than later. Lukewarm, accomodating leadership means we’ll likely have months, if not years of COVID-19 flare-ups. Regardless of my intellectual position on…