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Oceanside Pier, thirty seconds

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Trust but verify

There were a large group of very friendly ladies on both corners of Main and Alvarado on Wednesday waving flags. It was Veterans Day. Honestly not knowing what was going on, I walked up to a couple of them and asked if there was a parade on the way? 


"No," a woman said. "We are praying for Fallbrook." From their sign I guess you could infer they were praying for the whole country and we could certainly use it. No harm in that. I asked what church they were from and they said St. Peters, the local Catholic church.

I crossed the street to the south and encountered more prayerful folk. And me being me, I had to ask them one question that was pressing on my mind. "How come only one of your group is wearing a mask? You know we're in the midst of a pandemic. Isn't that a little risky?" 

A woman in the group answered me. "We've got masks." I said, "Really, where?" She pulled the crucifix from her chest and pushing it towards me like one might banish an evil spirit, said,"Right here."

I didn't quite know what to say to that and just muttered, slightly under my breath, "Not much help for the rest of us," and walked away. What the heck can you say?

7 comments:

Valerie Tate said...

Unreal...I wonder why the crucifix didn't work for the thousands of people who caught Covid and those who died? Also, why then was the one person wearing a mask? Skeptical? Keeping all bases covered? A non-believer? I'm glad that I wasn't there because I would have said something like you muttered and/or ask why thoughts and prayers haven't worked very well for our people and the country up until now! I did pray like crazy, hope, visualize, and beg for Biden to win, so maybe those prayers worked!? But probably more likely that the majority of people got sick and tired of Rump's con-game!

Ken Seals said...

Pretty sad. The cross is about as helpful as a bottle cap.

Jon Harwood said...

Goddess save us.

island guy said...

Quite a shocking disconnect for me between their upper middle class suburban look and vibe, which is very familiar to me after growing up in Southern Cal, and the impression of anti Science, non evidence based belief system your post seems to identify them as having. Reading about the American culture wars from afar is not the same as your reporting from your neighborhood. I tend to associate magical modes of thinking with Third World countries, tin foil hat wearers, star struck New Agers and other colorful folk. Can I introduce them to my own 2020 Holy Trinity? Science/Immunology/Virology? Trust but Verify is a quite kind way for you to (internally) admonish them.

Anonymous said...

Believing in religion is like believing in magic, that's why I don't follow any one of the many. Lots of good ideas to be found in all of them, but swallowing any religion whole makes me sick to my stomach.

Anonymous said...

Ive met many who practiced all the protocall and still got sick, so whatever we are doing is working poorly maybe it has to run its course mask or no mask, whatever I can see this thing going on forever till some new maliday hits us say the mouse flu and the power hungry governors release more of their absolute power, we use to have common sense but we are all acting like sheep

Blue Heron said...

Well, don't do it for yourself, do it for the next person or the doctor who might have to take care of them. Selfish to infect others for your freedom. Look at the recent superspreader weddings.