Embracing the new norm

In March 2020 when the pandemic first came to Australia, I seriously resisted wearing a mask. I felt embarrassed and silly given the risk was quite low at that time of contracting COVID19. I was concerned about what people would think about me. My partner resiliently went out and bought us masks. Against all the lack of evidence, or rather people’s lack of belief in it, at that time that masks were lifesavers, he was most probably the only person on the Sunshine Coast if not in the whole of QLD wearing one at that time in public. During his first appearance, he was accosted by a lady in the supermarket challenging him for wearing one saying he should stay at home if he was sick and a risk to the public! His response was calm and something like, I'm one of the safest people to be around right now! ?

Paul was a visionary, ahead of the game. While others were still waking up to it, he was all over it and knew what was to come should people not change with the times i.e., he did his research!

Look at me now, I am now part of the new norm where maybe not everyone agrees with them but they sure don't object to me wearing one. I happily wear one without hesitation not because of the risk of COVID necessarily as at the time of writing, we only have 10 cases of hospital staff who are currently in quarantine for saving an infected person's life, but because I want to look after me and my partners, health and well-being. ?

I was diagnosed with a rare and chronic autoimmune condition called Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid (MMP for short) in July last year, which affects the mucosal membranes around the body. Mine currently has a particular interest in affecting my eyes, throat, mouth, lips, and skin but is likely to affect others. Like all autoimmune conditions, the body attacks itself for no apparent reason, and mine had been at it for several years before I got a welcome diagnosis.

I am very happy that I can currently use my mask to protect blistered lips from the cool winter winds, along with my skin with sunscreen, and dry/irritated eyes with sunglasses from wind and light. I also have medical treatment which causes me to become immuno-compromised so I have less response to fight infection of all kinds to that of someone not on my kind of medication, so a mask is perfect here where I can’t get my safe distance for their infection to not spread into my orifices.

I’m writing this because I work with people with visible differences who fear sharing their differences in public. It’s no different for people getting used to wearing masks as it is for those who wear a visible scar, mark, skin condition, or blisters, and have to venture everywhere they go wearing it i.e., they don’t get to take it off. The negative reactions Paul and I got being courageous and sticking our heads above the parapet to keep us safe in the early days, getting odd glaring looks and strange comments or questions from the ill-informed is no different from that which is a permanently daily occurrence for those adorning unwanted visible differences.

So, masks are the new norm, most have accepted they are now necessary and possibly a permanent fixture of living on this planet. I long for the day when those with visible differences can walk freely with access to the same. Where, because they carry around a surface area with less than a .01% difference to the norm, this doesn’t preclude them from being accepted and able to live a normal everyday life and co-exist in peace.