Page 32 - voices-2021-11

QUARTER NOTE
Masking Our Discontent
David Freedman, IP3
I suppose it’s inevitable that even in the worst of
circumstances, we find ways to pull through by
mixing gallows humor in with the seriousness. In
my case, during the pandemic I started thinking
about what different styles of masks to wear.
Yes, I know how that sounds. Why should
anyone worry about the style of their mask?
It’s hard enough to get through the pandemic
wearing a mask to begin with, especially if
you work in environments where masks are
mandatory. Likewise, taking mass transit or
having a mask handy to wear around large
crowds still feels like a chore no matter how
many times you do it. Nevertheless, I couldn’t
help but notice that for a lot of
people, creativity in what they
wore seemed to make at least
a little bit of a difference.
At least a year ago,
I finally
32 ONE COMMUNITY
decided to follow through on this and found
some masks for myself that lifted my mood even
as I had to forego a great deal of social contact. I
ordered a couple of masks on Amazon, one with
the typical happy face smile, the other with a
quote lifted directly from Alice in Wonderland:
“We’re all mad here.” It felt oddly appropriate
and more than a little desperate considering the
times we were living in during quarantine.
In the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, we even
have our own unique masks that we use for
rehearsals. These large black masks can make
a person look like a duck-billed platypus when
worn, largely because they’re deliberately made
to have extra space for a singer to
breathe. At the present time,
we’ve yet to have our
first live concert,
but we know
that we’ll be
mask-free on
stage while
we sing to our
audience to
create greater
volume. At our
rehearsals, the masks stay on at all
times, and even then, we’ve had breakthrough
cases of Covid. The bottom line is, there are
no guarantees right now.