Nothing left to lose?

I’m not sick today.

Left to my own devices, I probably would be. Y’see, a few days ago I was in a situation where I could well have gotten a seriously unhealthy nosefull of corona virus, the delta variant, no doubt. This time last year, that degree of potential exposure could have taken even my ever vigilant immune system by surprise and put me somewhere on the bad side of the health department’s statistical tables. This year, nary a cough or a sniffle. A thorough swabbing turned up nothing pathological. I’m good to keep on goin’ despite a close encounter of the viral kind.

Now there’s a straightforward explanation for this: Three jabs of the Moderna vaccine and masked faces all around. I didn’t beat the virus, medicine and good behavior did – good behavior nudged along by mandated mask-wearing.

If anybody still doubts the effectiveness of masks and shots, I offer myself as living,  breathing evidence.

Of course, there’s little doubt we would have all been sitting around bare faced, spewing bugs at the top of our voices but for the official edict that helped keep our personal pathogens to ourselves. Down deep, we’re all still toddlers needing to be made to do what’s good for us.

And please don’t start talking to me about “freedom.” Wearing a mask in the room was just one more thing I had to do that day … like picking up the dog’s poop, paying for my groceries, and not running over the little old lady crossing the street. Funny how I never really thought of those “hafta do’s” as seriously interfering in what I’d consider to be my freedom.

I didn’t see putting a mask on that way either. Or getting vaccinated, for that matter.

I guess it depends on how you choose to look at it. According to Kris Kristofferson “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose…,” although I never conceived of going through bankruptcy court as being a particularly liberating experience. It’s not just doing what you darn-well please either. Nah, freedom’s more complicated than that.

The fact is, starting with gravity and being born an obligate air breather, every one of us has our ability to do what we please constrained in one way or another. Not one of us can go long without having to eat, drink, or poop, and once we get that out of the way there’s the small matter of heat, clothing and finding a safe place to sleep. If freedom means being able to do as you please without regard to anybody else, Robinson Crusoe was the epitome of a free man. But if absolute freedom is so doggone desirable, why was old Robinson to hot to get rescued?

Because life is easier, better, safer, with people around. So, starting with toilet training and rudimentary table manners, we give up some of that precious freedom in the best interest of the whole group. Folks neglecting that principle are what sent Moses up the mountain to fetch down the Ten Mandates … which were subsequently multiplied to keep people from selling poisoned liquor, fishing with dynamite, and, yes, flagrantly spreading contagious disease.

That ain’t freedom. That’s self-righteous, self-centered, selfish, and self-serving.

Those aren’t rights, they’re wrongs.

And yes, we do have rights. We do have freedoms. Those legitimate rights and freedoms are not all that difficult to identify. They are those things we choose to do that are not injurious or potentially injurious to our community or it’s members. Our freedoms have constraints. Every right has its limit.

And just like your right to swing your fist ends at the end of my nose, your right to spew COVID 19 ends at the same place.

Putting an end to this pandemic depends on our not getting that wrong.