Today I wore a mask to Target.

I was hot.

I was uncomfortable.

My glasses were foggy.

No one could see my really cute lipstick I had just applied before I put my mask on because I still have standards to uphold people. (Also the lipstick thing is automatic and I keep forgetting about the mask.)

I smiled with my eyes at my fellow mask wearers to encourage us all in our mission of love

Friends, masks are not a symbol of fear.

They are a symbol of love.

We know wearing a mask protects us some, but even more so it protects those around us.

If we know there’s a chance we could be sick and not know it, even a small chance, we care for those around us by wearing this bit of fabric around our faces.

We accept being uncomfortable and living differently and taking this extra step as a way of serving those around us.

As a way of acknowledging we are all connected and what I do might in fact affect others.

“You do you” is really no way to plow through a pandemic.

We need each other, like it or not.

So we wear a mask as a way of saying we are all in this together, and even if I am just fine, I still care about what happens to you.

As a way of trying to get back to living in community together outside the walls of our homes.

It’s such a simple thing to do really, this mask-wearing.

It is not living in fear.

It is siding with the science.

It has nothing to do with politics...I couldn’t care less about your politics as I keep my breath off you in public.

Today I wore my mask for you. And for your child with asthma. And for your daughter who is pregnant. And for your mom who just got done fighting cancer. And for your perfectly healthy coworker who could still get it. And for your husband who is working as a nurse taking care of those fighting the virus. And for your cousin who just really needs to open up their restaurant again. And even for your Uncle Bill who is in his 80s and doesn’t believe the virus exists.

Mask wearing is about living in love and in service to our fellow humans... all of them.

If there is a chance what I did today kept someone safe I will sleep better.

And who doesn’t want to sleep better?

So for the time being let’s all keep our breath to ourselves, tucked behind a jaunty piece of fabric (I’m eyeing up one with a Golden Girls pattern) as a way of saying, “Hey, I might not know you or ever see you again or even agree with you about anything but yet I care.”

Mask wearing for the win.

Originally published at Hiding in the Closet with Coffee by Amy Betters-Midtvedt on Facebook.