There was an altogether appropriate outpouring of praise and respect for Denny O'Neil all across the Internet yesterday. It made me think, as so many passings do, how many good and smart people I've met in the comic book industry. It's most of them. It's why at a comic convention, I may know less than 5% of the people in the hall but I still feel among friends.
Pardon the strained segue here but you know when I don't these days? When I'm around people not wearing masks. Are they making some sort of political statement? If they are, it seems like a crazy one given the apparent links lately between a city "opening up" and having the number of reported cases of COVID-19 increase. Even if you believe there's no cause-and-effect relationship there, I'd think you'd wear a mask just in case you're wrong. That's one of the problems with politics these days: Too many people who won't consider the possibility that they're wrong.
Yeah, it's weird to be in a public place these days with so many people wearing masks and trying to maintain their distance. To me, it's even weirder to be among people who think…I don't know…"This whole virus thing is a hoax"…or "I'm so damned healthy I won't get it and I don't care if I carry it to someone else"…or "The president says it's over"…or whatever. I'm torn between wanting to ask these people what the hell they're thinking and not wanting to be anywhere near them.
I miss crowds. Unlike some people, I don't mind them as long as there's a place I can go to get away from them. When I go to Las Vegas alone, as I sometimes do (or did), I like that I can work or sleep in my room and feel utterly isolated…and then I can just hop in an elevator and within two minutes, be surrounded by mostly-happy people. And when I have enough of that, I can escape back to the solitude of my room just as easily. Right now, there's no place where I can be among mostly-happy people at all, let alone a crowd where I feel safe.
This will end. We're all just waiting this thing out…and that's another thing I think when I see unmasked folks in the shopping center: They might be making themselves feel better by acting like it's over but it isn't and they're more likely prolonging it. It's frustrating to be in the tunnel and not know how long it is, how far you'll have to travel to see that light at the end. But you just have to keep going because there really isn't a good alternative. Wish there was.