The World’s Mask
the one before the pandemic
Marie can’t believe what she’s hearing, her city is shutting down by the end of the week. She thinks to herself, “What’s a shutdown anyway?” It sounds like the start of an apocalypse movie. She’s being forced to work remotely and can’t seem to find staple household products in the store just as she’s on her last couple rolls of tissue. Everyone is freaking out but thinks this will blow over soon.
Two months into the shutdown, Marie finds herself running to a grocery store because a co-worker said there was tissue and cleaning products.
Grocery runs have become the most challenging task of the week.
Seeing people outside her home is next to impossible.
Her kitchen island has become a pseudo workstation.
But she realizes a shutdown is just a widespread case of depression. Leaving home to see people and just getting out of bed has been hard for her long before the world got levelled.
These circumstances are new, but the outcome is familiar. No matter what, she has to continue thinking about what’s most important. Her therapist had been encouraging her to think about this for the past year and a half. For Marie, what’s important hasn’t changed, although the circumstances around these things have.
Listening to the complaints of her colleagues on zoom calls, friends on facetime and anchors on the news, the world seems to be losing its mind. Social media is crowded with messages that say, “If these are the last days of your life, what should you be doing?” People are starting to think about what’s going to happen but also what is really important. Everyone is finally getting a little taste of her everyday reflections.
She’s struggled with depression and been so close to desiring death. And realized it would take her seeking what she really wants for her to desire living. The whole world seems to be struggling with fear and anxiety about the future and staying healthy. But they are only getting a glimpse of what she has felt for a long time. She finds herself constantly wondering, “How could everyone else not see this before?”
People are tired of being alone and feeling stuck. People are beginning to see what it feels like, to feel down and not be able to do much to change the feeling.
Families are stuck together, singles are more aware of their singleness.
Marriages are falling apart, roommates are fighting.
Countries’ failures are being seen globally, science seems to be far behind.
And everyone is blaming the pandemic. But the truth is, the pandemic didn’t create the tension. The pandemic just exposed people to more than just a virus as they had to take off the masks of their busyness. The world had to mask up to go outside but had to remove the mask somewhere to finally breathe.
No one could run from the problems they had been busying themselves to avoid facing. Marie had been silencing the world around her to deal with her problems but now that the world was silenced she felt at home while everyone else felt out of place.
She felt the world had been given a pair of glasses to see things as they really were. To see life as it really is. This pandemic that brought panic and fear and uncertainty in a weird way was exactly what the world needed. Despite the pain it may have caused billions of people, it was a humbling gift of reality. Exposing the things humans sought for security as fickle, fleeting, and feeble. And in return, giving the lessons of intentionality, importance, and introspection.
Nearly a year later, Marie is relieved that she can easily find toilet paper. But she can’t help but hope that those same people she stood in lines with months before were fighting in their personal lives to get rid of the masks they wore before.
As you await the world’s return to normalcy, carry your new learnings about yourself and life with you. Take inventory of your life regularly to figure out what is truly important and brings you joy. Seek to remove the mask you wear in life as you hope for a world without masks.
And remember that there are people around you that may have felt depression and anxiety for years and no vaccine can resolve that for them.
