What Do Face Masks and Hurricanes Have in Common?
My first cruise taught me something valuable. I don’t want to name the cruise line, but you might be able to guess pretty easily.
It was a new ship; it had been on less than 20 voyages, and it was the first ship for this cruise line. This cruise line didn’t ask for any advice from anyone experienced in operating a cruise line. They felt pretty confident in themselves.
I came into this with a negative attitude towards cruises. They seemed cheesy, focused on enormous quantities of mediocre food. I was a strict vegetarian at the time, for health reasons. I used to get really ill if I had any animal meat or even a little chicken broth.
I made all the special requests for my dietary needs, and long story short, this cruise line was a disaster. Their idea of a veggie burger was a bun with lettuce and tomato. There were other things that went wrong too, and it took several years and a lot of convincing to get me to try cruises again. Turns out I do like cruises, but I’m a snob. I’m very clear on what I want, which isn’t actually a bad thing, but that’s not the point of this post.
On the last night of the cruise, a hurricane we’d tried to avoid caught up with us. The only stage production I’ve ever been to on a ship was that night. It was a story of pirates on the ocean, and they were supposed to be experiencing rough seas in the story.
On the way out of the theater, as we were beginning to feel the hurricane, we joked about how seriously they took these special effects. That it was very convincing stagecraft.
We knew perfectly well it wasn’t stagecraft; we were entering a hurricane. It wasn’t that long after I’d seen the movie Titanic. We were in the Bermuda Triangle. It was a new and untested ship, and I’m afraid of water.
Our personal effects were sliding back and forth a little on our vanity in the room. We went up on deck and the waves were terrifying. In hindsight, that wasn’t smart to go out there. At least it was dark outside, so we couldn’t fully see the waves. The troughs were like black holes.
I made sure I knew where the life vests were, and I kept telling myself “at least the water’s warm, at least the water’s warm”.
When I would allow myself to remember this was a real life hurricane, I got sick. When I switched my mind over to the thought, this was all an elaborate amusement park ride to go with the show we watched, then I was fine. When I told myself it was an amusement park ride, it was even fun.
Through the night I would switch back and forth. Real hurricane equalled, sick and frightened. Amusement park equalled excitement and fun. I did all I could to stay in that belief that it was a long amusement park ride.
As you can probably guess, I survived. This taught me something valuable, and it’s that the way we frame things can significantly change the way we experience something.
I’m writing this during a pandemic. People are throwing temper tantrums and making up nonsense about wearing masks. In the beginning I allowed myself to believe I couldn’t breathe with one on. Then I stopped telling myself that and wearing one is now just mildly annoying.
Us having a negative reaction to something because of our beliefs about it has a name. It’s the nocebo effect. Our body responds to what we believe.
If you honestly equate wearing a mask with losing your freedom, then stop wearing shoes and shirts in stores, and stop wearing your seat belt. Go to restaurants with terrible health inspection scores, in fact make sure the chef is barefoot and licks your silverware before you use it, because you’ve been cooperating with all sorts of things this whole time without all the nonsense. At least be consistent with your refusal to play well with others.
If you believe you can’t breathe with a mask on, you’ll feel like you can’t breathe with a mask on. This inability to breathe with a mask on is exactly why surgeons train for years, then conduct just one surgery before they die from carbon dioxide poisoning. What? They don’t die from that? THAT’S BECAUSE YOU CAN BREATHE WITH A MASK ON.
Chances are good that you already agree with me. I don’t tend to attract the people who engage in that kind of foolishness, but if one of you got through, WEAR A MASK. Until this pandemic is over, just wear the stupid mask.
*typos and grammar errors provided for your entertainment.
