The Return of the Mask

For almost two years I donned a mask whenever I traveled into a market or liquor store. For the most part over the past months I have put away my supply of face coverings and not found it necessary to mask-up when I shopped or entered a restaurant for dinner. The threat of the coronavirus has receded and besides, I am vaccinated and boostered.
            Alas, I have taken my masks out of storage again, this time as the smoke from the wildfires in Canada make the air I breathe unhealthy. Over the past month air quality alerts have appeared regularly cautioning older folks (of which I am one), people in sensitive groups with issues of health (that includes me), and angst-ridden citizens (always, me) to either stay inside (da return to sequestering!) or wear a mask when venturing out of doors. Elizabeth tells me that she heard on the news that there have been twenty-four air quality alerts in the year thus far. Nevertheless, as for the pat 50 or so years I have engaged in physical outdoor exercise on most days, I want and for my physical and psychological health I want to walk. Consequently, I have taken my masks (I possess a variety of styles) out of storage where I have placed them in anticipation of the visitation of the next plague.
            Today Highway 61 Revisited, the WUMB radio program I have listened to every Saturday morning for many years now is celebrating the birthdate of Woody Guthrie. Actually, Woody was born on a July 14, 1912, and yesterday they did play a good amount of Woody’s music, but the themed radio program takes place on Saturday mornings and so the program began with Woody’s narrative “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh.” It is a song that reflects on the human impact of the mid-west dust storms in the 1930s.

A dust storm hit, an' it hit like thunder

It dusted us over, an' it covered us under

Blocked out the traffic an' blocked out the sun

Straight for home all the people did run, singin'

So long, it's been good to know yuh

So long, it's been good to know yuh

This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home

Plus ça change, plus ca même chose, though it is ironic that whereas for more than two years I could walk unmasked out of doors and don the mask whenever I entered into establishments that now I mask whenever I go out of doors and remove the face covering indoors. The Dust storms in the 1930s were a result of bad farming practices and climate changes; now as the earth warms and there is drought, the forests burn and there is no rain to put them out! Plus ça change, plus ca même chose. I think again of lines from another song from Woody’s accomplice: “Oh when will they ever learn?”
            Growing up all I knew from masks was the Lone Ranger, Zorro and bank robbers. And all I knew about climate change was the regular change of seasons. Growing up my parents urged me to get out of the house and go out of doors. Now, I tell my children to stay inside or at least when they must go out at least to wear a mask! What a shameful world we have created for our children.