Rant #2,652: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Today, May 11, is the 131st day of the year, so we have 234 more days until we can call 2021 history and move on to the new year of 2022.
 
Some people can’t wait for that to happen, even though we are only in the middle of May. Such has been this year—and last year, for that matter—with the pandemic shaping our every move.
 
Hopefully, by 2022, much of what we do will be back to normal, but I somehow have my doubts if anything is going to be back to normal, simply because so much has changed … and it simply isn’t going to go back to the way it was, ever again.
 
That is a sad thought. I admit it.

 
We do have our constants, though, like Elizabeth Hurley posting another picture of herself (“Can anyone believe that I look this great at age 55?” is the response she wants and the response this talentless, yet beautiful, woman gets), so I guess the world turns even if we still have to wear a mask.
 
Another constant in my own life is that every two weeks, I bring in our bags of bottles and cans to the recycling area of my local supermarket, and another constant is that every time I am there, someone does not have their mask on.
 
The place is enclosed, absolutely filthy with debris, and I think it would be the perfect place to pick up the virus, so I ask people to put on their masks while we are putting our bottles and cans in the machine.
 
And yesterday morning, the same thing happened. I was there, an older gentleman came in, and he had no mask on, preferring to wear it as a bandana rather than as a face mask.
 
I said to him, “Sir, can you do me a favor? Can you put your mask on?”
 
He had a pretty novel reply to that as he momentarily stopped doing what he was doing.
 
“Did you get the vaccine?” he shouted at me.
 
“Yes I did,” I replied.
 
“I did too. Then what the hell do we need the mask on for?” he shouted back at me.
 
Rather than get into a clinical discourse about how you can still contract the virus even though vaccinated, I simply replied back, “Please, do me a favor. Wear your mask while you are in here.”
 
And he put up the mask as I thanked him for doing so, and that was the end of that.
 
You know, even after you get the flu shot, you can get the flu. I remember my father getting the flu shot several years ago, and then getting the flu a few weeks afterward.
 
It is the same thing here, You can still get the coronavirus while vaccinated, although the so-called experts—who I have completely lost confidence in because of all of their double talk—have said that you won’t suffer as virulently as someone who gets the virus and doesn’t have the shot.
 
As you know, I have become a “doubting Larry” about this entire pandemic, why it exists and how it has been handled by many of our elected officials on both sides of the aisle, and I also question many of our medical people, who also, I believe, give us conflicting stories and honestly, know as much about what they are talking about as your blue-collar neighbor does.
 
I don’t like mask wearing, either, but it is such a simple thing to do, so I do it, not because I want to, but because right now, it might be the right thing to do.
 
The operative word there is “might,” because no, I am not entirely sure about that either, but sometimes, you have to do things that you don’t want to do, so I wear the mask, whether I believe its “power” or not.
 
And if the rule states that you have to wear a mask in certain situations, why not wear a mask?
 
The one thing that I still believe, and I have believed in this from the beginning, is that wearing a mask is not a political statement in any way, shape or form.
 
So I wear a mask when I am in the supermarket, because I simply believe it is the right thing to do.
 
And here is a poor segue way to the next subject I want to talk about, but refusing to wear a mask is kind of making you into something much less than an “Animal,” turning you into something of a “Sky Pilot,” and “Don’t Bring Me Down” with your behavior.
 
Yes, I admit it, that is a pretty bad way of wishing Eric Burdon, the lead singer of the Animals, a happy 80th birthday, but the fact is that this seminal voice of the British Invasion of the mid 1960s has reached that special birthday today, so a big shout out to him.

 
His lead vocal on “House of the Rising Sun” is one of the greatest lead vocals in rock history, and his cadre of hits really is a touchstone for the 1960s.
 
The Animals were not as polished as the Dave Clark Five or the Beatles were, and that led them to an enormous amount of popularity way back when, with their grittiness developed in songs like the ones I mentioned, and later, as Burdon went psychedelic, in tunes like “Monterey” and the aforementioned “Sky Pilot,” he was able to tap into a new vibe that fit his gravelly voice to the hilt.
 
And remember, he did “Spill the Wine” with War, so he was able to reimagine himself one more time as a pop/rock/soul singer.
 
So happy birthday to Burdon. I don’t know if he wears a mask, but if I see him in my local supermarket’s recycling area, I would hope that he would.
 
Fat chance of that happening … seeing him in my local supermarket’s recycling area, that is.