Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul...everything they owned was held in common. Acts 4
I was meeting with our online Men’s Group and mentioned I was scheduled to receive my second Covid-19 vaccine shot. The first shot four weeks earlier had knocked me for a loop with a slight fever, chills, general body aches, fatigue, and all the other things guys tend to complain about whenever it comes to anything medical. It’s true. You can shoot a guy in the face while bird-hunting and they’ll just walk it off, but stick them with that itsy bitsy vaccination syringe and it’s “pour me into bed and plug ‘911’ into my phone’s speed-dial.” Sheesh.
The fact is I am writing this just hours after having received the vaccine precisely so that I’ll be able to send it off from the grave before the deadline comes and goes. Hey, I am ALWAYS thinking of others!
Anyway, I found myself wondering, all kidding aside, just what it is that prevents people from voluntarily wearing masks and getting their vaccines as soon as they can. I want to be vaccinated and reduce the likelihood of contracting or passing the disease along. I will continue wearing my mask in public simply because I don’t want you – my neighbor – to wonder whether or not I am safe to be around. The issue isn’t my rights, but our community.
The problem with Covid, and most microbial viruses and germs is that they are so darned small. We can’t see them to avoid them. We can’t look at one another and know for certain what contagions we each might be carrying. I did offer one alternative to the men’s group that anti-maskers and anti-vaccers might want to consider. It addresses the size issue, and it is based on science.
We need to bring back outdoor nuclear testing like we had in the late 1940s and early 1950s. I remember seeing a movie that I’m sure was based solely on modern science where atomic testing allowed desert ants to mutate and develop into twelve foot monsters. They were big enough to require machine guns and flamethrowers to deal with them. Well, bring back outdoor atomic testing and wait for the viruses to mutate big enough to whack them with baseball bats or fly swatters! I mean, if we can see the little beasties lolling around like beach balls, we can deal with THEM and go back to our maskless ways.
In the meantime, it seems one key to getting the pandemic behind us is to actually do something even harder: we need to get ourselves under control. I don’t wear a mask for me; I wear it for you. Why? Jesus said, “Love your neighbor.” If I bring you a smile, isn’t that loving? If I wear a mask so you don’t get as much salivatory ejecta from me, isn’t that loving? If I obtain a vaccine so the virus has no place to go and no way to get there, isn’t that loving?
The early Church grew quickly in the early days, not because of membership drives or paid advertisements, but because those early followers did something counter-intuitive; they loved their neighbors – including outsiders and persecutors. They didn’t concern themselves with their rights, but when their neighbors were in need, they did all they could to bring relief to their little corner of the dog-eat-dog world in which they lived; their neighbors took notice.
Followers of the Way recognized they were part of a community that didn’t end at their front porch, but included the wider community, including those who did not look, think, or act like them. In a world of “us and them,” they learned to embrace the “we.”
When it comes to masks, consider this. Painters mask off walls or trim they don’t want paint to stain. I, just as reasonably, mask off my face to avoid spraying you with unpleasantries.
If we follow the science rather than the science fiction, it is quite possible we can slow down or end this pandemic, allowing us all to breathe a little easier here in this, our valley.
Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of newly released: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available exclusively through Amazon in Print and e-book)
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