Are you holding your shield?

Over the last few months, the world has asked a lot from us. We had to stop travelling, shut down businesses and take kids out of school.

But from some of us, it asked even more. The doctors worked round-the-clock shifts, hours spent in hazmat suits, and so did nurses. They chose the comforts of their patients over their loved ones. And then, there are among those whose businesses may never reopen, or whose jobs will never come back and those who didn’t get to say goodbye to the people they loved, who had to watch funerals over the internet.

The normalcy of dressing up or maintaining distance was disrupted. Some of us constantly raised questions, “why are we asked to wear face masks in public, and practice social distancing, or observe self-quarantine?” The answer is, these practices are not for the individual alone but to protect the whole line.

The moment that we are in, is a test. It’s a test of our character. This is the time to differentiate between taking actual measures and paying a lip service to sympathy.

The mask is not for you. Social distancing is not for you. It’s for the grandmother of the person you never met. It’s for the chemo patient who’s fighting a war with his own body. It’s because you might be a carrier and not know it. So, when you wear a mask, you are protecting the strangers you see, and consecutively, the strangers they see too. This is what it means by protecting the whole line – you are not helping yourself, you are doing something far more important and nobler.

These times are asking an extra favor from us all, so let’s keep on keeping our shields.