The end of wearing the mask is announced. Mid-April, almost everywhere. Mid-May, everywhere, everywhere. Are you happy ? If so, say it to your face. Or more precisely at the top of your face.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
Surprisingly, this wonderful news did not cause any demonstrations of joy. Not even among those that the obligation to put one had pushed to express their anger. No triumphal exit. No partisan recovery. No mass movement.
We would have been told the end of the low support port, we would have reacted more.
It must be said that we were told, without drum or horn. Thursday morning at 10 a.m. There was never a press briefing at 10 a.m. Without Christian Dube. Without Francois Legault. Just the Dr Boileau. The very calm Dr Boileau. Imagine if it was Horacio Arruda who had revealed to us the lifting of this measure, there would have been a group of cheerleaders to make him do a backflip in the air ! Then Rita Baga would have arrived singing It is the beginning of a new time. While there, dead calm.
However, this is what we have been hoping for for so long. No but, do you realize it? No more need to cover your nose and mouth in all public places! We will be able to go to the convenience store, the grocery store or the cinema, without having the impression of ending up in intensive care!
No more mist in the glasses. No more ears irritated by the elastic. No need to wonder where we could have left that damn piece of fabric lying around.
No more need, either, to fight against the reflex of coach. It must have happened to you too. Lower your mask to make sure that your interlocutor understands what you are saying. Or even lowering your mask when you had misunderstood what our interlocutor had just told us. As if our hearing were in our nose holes:
“What, what are you saying?”
“I’m telling you to pull up your mask!”
– Okay, but you too! »
And above all, above all, we will be able to smile at each other again! What happiness! I know, I know, the cynical minds are going to pretend that we can look stupid again. Because the mask had the advantage of making us forget that the people we meet more often have faces of Lent than faces of Cocothon.
Don’t tell me you’re going to regret all the good things about face coverings! ? It is typical of human beings. To stand up when something is imposed on him, and when he is told that he can finally do without it, to want to adopt it. Don’t be surprised to see Rambo Gauthier enter the brewery well masked in the summer. Either we are rebellious or we are not.
Of course, you haven’t had the flu or gastro for two years. And you haven’t breathed in any bad breath from anyone else, either. Nor seen a mustache with food on it. But the Dr Boileau confirmed it, if you want to keep it, you can.
Seriously, I know you’re happy. That if you have demonstrated it little, this week, it is a question of timing.
First, you’re so sick of COVID that even good news about it makes you sick to your stomach. Besides, mid-April is so far away. Everything can change so much. Scalded cat fears cold water, especially if the cat is in the throat.
Without forgetting that the tragedy experienced by the Ukrainian population puts our own into perspective; the wearing of the mask that seemed so heavy to us suddenly becomes a simple annoyance next to the horror of war.
That said, we can still be proud, when it is allowed to remove it, to have worn it. To have made a gesture of solidarity, towards each other, for two long years. It’s not nothing.
In ten years, when we go back up the thread of our photos and we come across those with our masks, our selfies, our gang photos, our beautiful outings, we will know immediately what period it is. And despite all the misfortunes of this pandemic, these memories will make us smile, with the beautiful smile of life.
Roll on mid-April!