Reflections on Mask Wearing and Climate Change: Are We only Matter?

-Rev. Dr. Bob Shore-Goss, Member, NH IPL, Steering Committee, The Federated Church, Marlborough, NH

What does mask wearing have to do with climate change? I wore a mask several years ago while living in Sonoma County, CA, when the fire storms raged in Northern California and spewed massive amounts of smoke reaching us and even San Francisco. The air was unhealthy to breathe; I and many residents wore masks daily as we went outside. For a couple of weeks, our air was filled with smoke from the uncontained fires in the North. Our only respite was masks or air conditioning inside.

Now we are experiencing a pandemic, and health officials are asking Americans to wear masks in public settings. Masks have been politicized, and there are folks who claim to have a constitutional right not to wear a mask. They take a position of individualism. It is about themselves.

Masks are about social care for self and others. Masks can reduce the spread of the covid-19 virus and mitigate spread. I wear a mask because I care about the welfare of others. It is an act of social compassion, an intentional spiritual practice directed to other people. Compassion is a value in most of the world religions.

Radical individualism is problematic for all forms of religion. It appears as radical selfishness and fails to recognize the communal basis of living on Earth. I have heard a few New Hampshire residents recite the state motto, “Live free or die”. Radical individualism collapsed to the self or a few folks.

Individualism may be a way of life for some, but it fails to recognize the wider perspective of living on our planet. The poet Wallace Stevens writes, “We are not our own. Nothing is itself taken alone. Things are because of interrelatedness and interconnections.” Humans are interconnected with humans and with all living things.

Climate change has brought an ecological awareness encapsulated in the insight of Wallace Stevens. The challenge is to move people from a perspective of post-Enlightenment individualism with a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to an understanding that we are interrelated in a planetary web of life. We must see ourselves not as individuals but as interrelated in a community of life on a living planet. We are part of a vast network of interrelationships. We all live on the Earth and co-live with other life. We as citizens of the planet are responsible for others, other human beings and other life.

The new perspective of interrelatedness is the basis of compassion. Despite the nay-sayers on mask wearing, I look around at my neighbors for hope in dealing with climate change. I watch and participate with a congregation who understand the chaos of the pandemic, the suffering of people from the virus, the need for food, and helping our neighbor. The remarkable gifts of kindness and compassion are expressed under the umbrella mantra: “We are all in this together.” This is the vital change of perspective that generates hope for dealing with the challenges of climate change. The “we” is no longer just humans but all life on our island home.