The Coffee Table

221

The Smiling Impairment

If anybody should be opposed to wearing a mask, it’s me. I am moderately hearing impaired—enough to wear hearing aids. Except masks make my little behind-the-ear devices physically problematic.  

When I’m not wearing hearing aids, I rely on lip cues and facial expression to fully understand. But other people’s masks thwart my efforts. Further, I instinctively smile at the drop of a hat to defuse grouchy situations. And even though I try hard to smile with my eyes, my mask obscures the message.

Nevertheless, I am a devout masker—and when everybody in Wal-Mart wore a mask, at least there was comfort in knowing we were all in the same boat. We were all communication impaired to some degree. But now that the state mask mandate has been lifted, some people are masked—some are not. And I find this nerve wracking. We’re not all on equal footing anymore. 

I know, I know. I could take off my mask. I have had both my vaccinations. But I continue to wear a mask in public lest I unwittingly carry the virus to people who haven’t yet been vaccinated—like my son. Or other people in Wal-Mart. This is what health professionals are advising.  And I want to do the right thing for my family and my community.

The news is filled with stories about people who are hesitant to get vaccines—and others who outright refuse. And the latest outrage is over “vaccine passports.” What’s the big fuss? We’ve had such things for decades. It’s nothing new that if you travel to a country where yellow fever abounds, you might need verification you’ve been inoculated against the disease. Kids have long needed proof of vaccinations before entering public schools—unless they got a waiver on religious, or other grounds. Vaccine passports are really nothing new. Requiring a Covid vaccine would just be an amendment to a social obligation that’s long been in place. For everybody’s benefit. 

I was once exposed to whooping cough at the school where I worked when one of the students with a waiver fell ill. Everyone who’d been around this child was advised to seek medical attention. I did get sick, but having been vaccinated—along with my doctor’s care—kept the illness in check.  

It’s not my intent to cast blame on the non-vaccinated child—who had reason to avoid the vaccine— but merely to illustrate a point: Opting out of vaccines creates a potential social problem.  

In our society we create all kinds of rules for the communal good. We get licenses to drive to prove we know the rules of the road. Practitioners of many professions must be licensed—plumbers, electricians, accountants, nurses. I am truly grateful my doctor is licensed! Shoot—I had to be officially finger printed to work in the public schools!  We follow societal rules all the time; just try going to Wal-mart naked!  Most of us follow these mandates without a second thought, because it eases things for the community at large, and for the most part, we are a communal species.

I look forward to the day I can openly smile in public again. Until then, I will remain masked when and where health professionals advise it. (They are licensed to know what they are talking about!) In the meantime, if you run into me in the grocery store, study my eyes—they are probably smiling at you.