Dear Faux Pelini,
I have a friend that absolutely refuses to wear a mask, and I can’t handle it. Has nothing to do with COVID, he is just very unfortunate looking. — Jamie B.
Dear Jamie,
COVID sucks, but you know what they say — every cloud has a silver lining, every thorn has its rose. Even when you fall down a flight of stairs there’s the moment of relief when your face hits the landing.
So, even something as awful as COVID isn’t all bad. For example, I bet you’ve learned some things over the past several months.
You’ve probably learned how to schedule your days more effectively. You now know which times of day are best for you to focus on work (for me, 10:30-10:45am), take naps (sometime between 11:10 a.m. and 6:25 p.m.) and have a snack (any time between 9:15 a.m. and 11:40 p.m.).
You’ve also likely learned that people are not so different from one another after all. Back in April you feared that while you were reorganizing your kitchen drawers and screaming advice to contestants on “The Price Is Right”, your neighbors were learning languages and writing books. But lately you’ve come to realize that just like you, your neighbors spend their days puttering around their houses, half-assing e-learning and playing What-Should-We-Have-For-Dinner-I-Don’t-Care-What-Do-You-Feel-Like-How-About-Pizza-No-We-Had-Pizza-On-Monday.
Jamie, I’ll be honest — I don’t really have any advice for how to handle your maskless friend (and technically, you didn’t ask for any). I chose your “question” this week because I laughed out loud when I read it, which reminded me of another important lesson: You can joke about something horrible, even a global pandemic, as long as the joke is funny and doesn’t hurt anybody.
Let’s take these lessons with us after the pandemic is over, Jamie. If a joke is harmless and funny, make it. As long as your work is getting done, take a nap. And if you really feel like having pizza again, have pizza again. Just remember to tip the delivery guy.