Went to the gym, our governor said starting today all public spaces require masks, and businesses are mandated to enforce mask wearing. Gyms are iffy. Basically no one forcing masks inside gyms. I figured, whatever… I’ll give it a try. We wear masks sometimes… and I’ve worn them on and off my whole life living abroad.First I ran on the treadmill. I did sprint intervals for 30 min. 1 min@11mph, then 1min@6mph… on and off for half hour. Then I did a light jog at 6mph for 10 min. today was shoulders and leg day. Typical medium lifting for about 1 hour (I do actually stop to check my phone now and then). Mask the whole time.
Did it bother me? Yeah… it was digging into my ears a bit. With my headphones and the mask around the ear… a bit snug….
but other than that…. nope.
I also noticed… no one in the gym wore a mask. Besides me. At first, I felt a bit … self conscious? Why am I the only one wearing?
The next phase – I started thinking – “well, mask doesn’t protect me- it protects others… and I’m not sick… and they def not gonna protect me if they sick…. so F- it… I should take it off.”
I was THIS close….. but something stirred inside me. I noticed every person I passed… they looked at me. Some of them, I imagine had thoughts like “this sheep is a conformist… .listening to whatever the government tells him to do”
Something irked me. I’m the ONLY. One wearing a mask… and I’m the conformist? I’m the only one that took a step considering my community…. and because they look at me funny… I’m suddenly about to say “meh, fuck the community… die everybody! Cough on you!”? Really? For a few stares, I’m gonna give up my values that easy? Am I that weak? That lacking of conviction?
Then I realized something. These people that refuse to wear, cause this mask is a shackle… a prison to enslave you by the government…. Why do you wear pants? Why do you wear a shirt in public? Why do you check if your fly is zipped and your cock isn’t hanging out when you exit the bathroom? Cause you followed some government official telling you not to. You listened to “the man” telling you it’s NOT ok to walk around with your private parts showing to the world…. yet somehow… THIS piece of cloth/paper on your face is a torture device? Your family jewels are contained daily in a prison… yet THIS thing that will likely be only a few months of your life… is a prison sentence? Oh, you can’t breathe cause you have a “medical” condition? Are you THAT weak? Is this country so weakened and crippled that you can’t come together as a community to care for each other…. to unite… and above all that you have the lung capacity of an asthmatic baby? Well then… yeah…. maybe this country deserves to fall.
So yeah. I kept the mask on. I don’t need to. No one else is wearing it at my gym. No one cares. fuck you. I care. God willing, I’m young (ish) and healthy… no family other than my loving wife (who’s even healthier than me)…. knock on wood… I may get sick.. and die after I post this… but…. my current mood is…. I’m healthy and I likely don’t need to fear the Coof…. but fuck you. I care. This country I came to be a part of… is screaming for help. At every corner we need unity… not division. This government, which I swore allegiance to when I became a citizen…. has asked for my help to just fucking wear a mask… something that doesn’t cause me any pain or suffering or discomfort… cause obviously I’m stronger than most of the locals here…. so yeah. I’m gonna wear this mask. Even when I run.
Listen, while I understand the term “mandate” is a bit scary… and until the military comes to put a muzzle on all our faces at gunpoint (which will never happen) – or we all unanimously agree one way or the other (again, never)…. the reality is… some choose to wear… others choose not to wear. You, who only wanted to open the economy up – as long as it was “easy and convenient” for you… choose not to wear. You only cared for the economy as long as it didn’t involve you actually making a sacrifice for your fellow man. Just call it like it is. It’s your right.
But, STOP, touting “masks don’t do this” or “don’t help” that. For every medical bullshit fact you can throw, there’s another fact that can be thrown right back at you. So just stop. You just choose to not do what the majority of Americans have worked hard to do for their fellow neighbor to get this country started again. And that’s ok. Just call it what it is – you just don’t care.
When I choose to help my community, and do something that we, the people, for the people, and by the people have asked each other to do – to help each other out – in this nation – when I do this thing – that harms NO ONE – but maybe helps someone out… when I’m actively sacrificing for what i believe might HELP my community and start the economy – and you choose not to…. well that makes me more an American than you.
(That being said…. I do understand a mask at the gym is a bit overkill…. )