“All joy in this world comes from wanting others to be happy, and all suffering in this world comes from wanting only yourself to be happy.” – Shanti Deva

I have contracted my son’s cold so when I went over to see my mom last night, I kept my mask on even inside her apartment. It reminded me of something one of my college-aged friends told me. She said that even before the COVID era, she observed that Asian students would wear masks if they had a cold. That way they could still be diligent about their studies and also be respectful of others.

Watching the news it makes me think that mask mandates have been controversial in this country. It seems that I regularly catch a story about some airline passenger acting out because they don’t want to wear a mask.

But walking around my neighborhood and going into stores, I haven’t seen any of that push back in person. My daughter has been able to go to first grade full-time in person this fall because the kids are really good at wearing their masks.

All this makes me hopeful that as we come out of COVID, as I’m sure one day we will, we Americans can take away that wearing masks is effective against spreading germs and is respectful of others. That maybe this era has a lasting impact enough to create a culture shift because we are so grateful that we can see each other in person, we can just remember to wear a mask if we aren’t feeling well.

(featured photo from Pexels)