It’s the first official Friday of Fall. You can trust the Sun to help you hold onto the ball.
☀️Your Face Is Killing Me
When I expressed any sort of (negligible) problem or pain as a kid around my dad, his standard reply was, “Well, your face is killing me.” Now being a dad, I find this quite a useful option in my response arsenal.
The Regime, however, is trying to steal my patriarchal jocularity. “Your face is killing me” is funny because it’s not true. The Regime is a Nanny State working overtime to make everyone think it’s a fact.
I’d like to develop this further. You, faithful Sun reader, would really help by sharing feedback or pushback, criticisms and recommendations for further reading. But here's what I've been thinking: masks make men unmanly.
This isn’t directed at increasing levels of estrogen or effeminacy, but decreasing virtues of humanity.
Sure there are qualifications. A good gas mask really does seem like appropriate armor for a soldier in a chemical warfare situation. I want my surgeon to mask up in the operating room, preventing any loose tooth from falling into my open body cavity during the procedure. But as we go about our every day, throughout the day, regular relationships and responsibilities, it’s less than human to cover up our faces.
I’m stressing that this is about human being, not first about Christian belief (though Christians do believe it). I do want my thoughts to be steeped in Scripture, and I do think the Holy Spirit helps us know what we were created by God to be. Actually we need God's help now, as those born in sin and with darkened minds. It's just that the argument for not covering our faces doesn’t depend on red-letter Bible verses.
Men—and I mean that in the mankind way, so both genders, male and female—are made in the likeness of God. Humans are image-bearers. Adam was the first man to reflect his Creator, and every other generation after Adam and Eve have the same privilege, to live together and work together “in the image of God.”
That “image” means more than having opposable thumbs. On a broad level it means having the capacity for relationships (hence why it was not good for Adam to be alone and why God made Eve as a helper-companion) as well as the capacity for responsibility (so the original mandate to fill the earth and subdue it). One of the implications of these capacities is the faculty of communication, of language (which was demonstrated on Adam’s first day when he named all the animals and then gave a name to his wife).
As we know, communication comes not only from our mouths, but from the faces that our mouths are on. Facial expressions are actually a thing, including nose-twitches and dropped-jaws and raised-eyebrows. Masks mess with all that, even if they do let eye-rolls pass. Masks muffle the clarity of phonics coming from the hard work done by tongue and teeth and throat, and prohibit extra helps the listener gets from looking at the lips. It’s a discussion disaster.
Worse than the practical problem is the relational problem of suspicion toward, and fear of, one’s neighbor. It is an anxiety blowout. When the wearer thinks about herself, she thinks of herself as a threat to others. Good thing we gave up the language of self-esteem because how is she supposed to feel better about her latent, as she lives and breaths, nature as potential killing grandma? And if she does feel better about herself for covering up, it’s a false virtue, and false virtues have destroyed more societies than respiratory viruses. Then when we look at our neighbors, community masking practices teach us to think of our neighbor as a problem. If he’s not wearing a mask: problem. If he is wearing a mask: well at least he knows he’s a problem. Friends, the whole thing is a problem.
We’ve been told that wearing a mask is loving our neighbor. But isn’t it rather unloving to start with assumptions about my neighbor that are so hesitant, if not resentful and scared to death?
God gave us faces. Face to face communication is a gift. Facetime is a more advanced technology than voice transmission by itself. Our faces are part of our identity, they reflect our hearts. We should cover our private parts, but the face is not a private part. We’re covering/uncovering the wrong parts!
I’ve written in previous issues of the Sun about the scientific studies on the uselessness of masks to stop coronaviruses. Today’s thoughts are about the spiritual and psychological effectiveness of masks, how they successfully ruin communication and ripen anxiety between us, a modern take on the Slough of Despond. Are there specific places and limited durations for specific mask applications? No doubt. Are unmasked faces in the ordinary movements of life killing us? If only we thought that was funny like dad did.
☀️Upcoming Events
Snohomish County Action Night - Wednesday, October 3, 5:00-7:00pm. Mayor Jon Nehring and Snohomish Councilman Nate Nehring are hosting this second annual event, and this year features guests Jonathan Choe—journalist and Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty, along with Sheriff Adam Fortney and Representative Jim Walsh. Tickets are requited, and a registration link is available by messaging Mayor Nehring.
Coffee Klatch with Mayor Nehring - Monday, October 9, 5:30-6:30pm. See the city’s webpage for more info.
Gravitics: Space Stations designed in Marysville - Tuesday, October 10, 6:30pm. Up next in the Marysville Presents series, Scott Macklin from Gravitics will talk about the space station module prototypes being prepared in the Marysville facility. The Herald recently ran an article about Gravatics in Marysville.
☀️Friday Fun
Vanity of vanities.
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