The nation is struggling with what to do about COVID precautions. The Center for Disease Control announced on May 13 that vaccinated persons can remove their masks in most settings. Many of us vaccinated people are happily unmasking and celebrating the beginning of a return to the normal. But many of us vaccinated people are still wearing their masks. I am one of those.
The reasons for remaining masked include protecting family members who are not yet vaccinated, or cannot be vaccinated, especially children under 2. Other reasons are respect for those who are immuno-compromised, and many more because COVID has not been even near-fully suppressed, and don’t forget the variants that could pop up any time. My mask says “it’s not over” to people I meet.
Effective this week the Cubs and the White Sox will require (only) one empty seat between people in ‘pandemic pods’ (groups of related people), and full capacity in some sections if everyone in them has provided proof of full vaccination, plus ID. The California teams are going to full capacity in June 15 (Dodgers) and for the S.F. Giants, the first game of the Bay Bridge series with Oakland 10 days later, June 25. As of now, there is no plan to have any social distancing. Is this a good idea? Isn’t this jumping the gun? Who wants a revisit from the plague? Answer: some people who travel on airplanes are jokingly calling for a return of COVID so that there’s lots of elbow room again.
At the risk of being a pompous pedagogue, I wish to draw your attention to a shortcut of language so common that word-people have just about given up on trying to do anything about it. This is the usage, “I identity with this or that.” Strictly speaking, it should be “I identify myself with this or that.” Some speakers and writers observe that tradition, but fewer and fewer, it seems. Oh well. It probably only matters in academia.
For lovers of newborns, here are two pictures of my granddaughter Aurora Amaltheia Emma Bond.
In faith and love,
Rev. Leland Bond-Upson
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