TIMES ARE TOUGH, YOU JUST HAVE TO SMILE
There’s a couple of surefire ways to divide family and fracture friendships, one being discussion of anything political and the other being the topic of face masks. If you don’t wear a face mask whenever you leave the house you’re shamed for being selfish and responsible for spreading coronavirus and potential death to everyone else. If you do wear a mask at all times when you leave your house you’re mocked as a sheeple, blindly following the somewhat contridictory advice of the CDC and WHO. Well, this column will not contribute to the debate.
The reality is that there are places that require the wearing of face masks. I’m not alone in missing seeing smiles and facial expressions. And despite the excellent advice of model Tyra Banks to smile with your eyes, there’s only so much sustained “smizing” a person can do.
In late April in anticipation of the stay-at-home order being lifted I ordered a custom cloth face mask that is made from a submitted photograph. The lower half of your face is copied onto the fabric, which appeared to be flesh color, ie: the color of the flesh of the person ordering the mask. I sent my order and then promptly forgot about it.
On Monday the little package arrived and provided the best LOL moment of 2020. Yes, that’s my nose and my smiling mouth on the mask but the face color is decidedly alabaster, leaning toward pink. The stitching is remedial at best, giving a Picasso-esque visual. At closer inspection the U.S. online company outsourced to China for manufacture, ironic.
My ever-practical husband, when he stopped laughing, asked how much I paid for it. I assured him I will get far more than $15 worth of enjoyment out of the reactions to my somewhat recognizable mouth/smile from passersby.
Judging from the hundreds of reactions from my Facebook village if there were a local company that could make these photo facemasks, business would be booming. If you see me out and about wearing my face on a face mask, rest assured that my real mouth is definitely smiling underneath.
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This will be the 15th Father’s Day without mine, and cause for reflection. What I will most recall of that life-changing day when this “Daddy’s Girl” lost hers, is that I hadn’t really lost my dad at all. I have a lifetime of memories and lessons learned, not the least of which is that through selfless giving the circle of life is unbroken. In life my father gave blood regularly for decades, his name appearing on the donor wall at the Inland Northwest Blood Center. In death he was an organ donor, his corneas giving sight. It pleases me beyond words to know that somewhere out there, two people have been viewing the wonders of the everyday world through my father’s eyes. In my heart of hearts I hope that one of the recipients is a daddy, able to see the love in his own daughter’s eyes this Father’s Day.
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Happy birthday today to Raydeane Owens, Jim Foote, Susan Reilly, Vicky Houle, Brenda Gabriel, Jesse Bishop, Leigh Cossette, Jennifer Smith and Dana Scholwinski. Tomorrow Jim Hammond (70!), Wanda McLean, Katy Meeks and Sean Watson will celebrate. On Friday Jim Morrison, Jake Capaul, Peggy Beebe, Jennifer Smock, Kelly Gwinn, Doug Harwood, Mel Swatzenberg, Paul Ivie, Genia Wortman, Lauren Hoffman, Sue Shibley, Bill Cope, Twyla Cope and Joey Flood add a candle to their birthday cake. Happy first day of summer birthdays to Kristen Enders, Lynda Nutt, Christi Fleischman, Daniel Davis, Sherin Diehl, Mark Appleby and Eva Jones on Saturday. Wayne Newby, Jaymee Paul, Lynda Pym, David Wold, Shirley Bade, Randy Watkins, Kelly Rice, L.C. Schell and Stephen Larson celebrate their birthdays on Father’s Day.. Monday Joe Butler, Nathan Walker, Lynne Hamm, Camille Lang, Ronda House, Jamie Johnson, Scott Shepperd, Mike Saunders, Bianca Olson and Caitlin Parmentier take another trip around the sun. On Tuesday Dawn Forest, Nancy Nick, Lynne Hammond and Carly Cline will put on their party hats.
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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.