By Sigrid Weidenweber
Masks have become the bane of our lives. Many Doctors and Virologists, believe that it does us more harm than good to re-breath old, hot air laden with carbon dioxide. A high concentration of carbon dioxide displaces available oxygen, which can lead to rapid heart-rate, clumsiness and dizziness, fatigue and even emotional upset. I remove the mask the moment I am outside. I try to walk as much as possible in parks and woods, however not everyone has a park close by. Try to go up on a roof-top, take a walk around the block without the mask and you will find that you breathe better.
Cleaning out my desk, I found an interesting poem written by my husband that deals with masks for a different reason. I find it amusing, sort of tongue in cheek, therefore, I want to share it. It is somewhat different than my usual comments.
It is entitled:
Beyond Cheesecloth
Don Weidenweber
there is a Hindu cult where they breathe through cheesecloth
so as not to kill any living thing—inhaling them,
whereas we, with anger and glee,
kill anything that annoys us.
a few of us escort spiders and moths to freedom
but flies are lucky if they are spared torture
and woe to the rat
which nests anywhere near our home,
and gophers and moles get trapped
or even blown up with planted explosives, while squirrels, rats with a fancy tail,
generally, get a pass.
we use guns on larger nuisances
such as bears, cougars and unruly neighbors
breathing through cheesecloth won’t change us.
i, for example, would continue to kill silverfish
even if they are in the middle of their courting dance, and yes, some others might be spared
if it wasn’t too inconvenient.
but even though the cheesecloth might remind us
to respect all of god’s creation
our education would remind us that god, like us,
is an observer of evolution,
and we, being at the top of the food chain,
are evolving beyond nuisances
beyond cheesecloth.
There the poem ends, leaving me with the thought: are we evolving beyond nuisances? I think we are becoming the greatest nuisance on the planet and we cannot be filtered out with cheesecloth.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal
Sigrid Weidenweber grew up in communist East Berlin, escaping it using a French passport. Ms. Weidenweber holds a degree in medical technology as well as psychology and has course work in Anthropology. She is co-founder of Aid for Afghans. Weidenweber has traveled the world and lived with Pakistani Muslims, learning about the culture and religion. She is a published author and lecturer. You can find her books on Amazon.com
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