When life gets busy, journalling is the first activity to get put on the shelf. This probably should not be the case, but it happens.
Yesterday Toffee and I were out for a mid-afternoon walk, and while heading home and gentleman in shorts stopped to look at Toffee. Usually I don’t let Toffee approach strangers, as he is not always friendly, and seldom predictable. But this man looked gentle, and Toffee was quite happy to see him…besides, Toffee can’t resist licking bare legs! The two of them had a brief conversation, then the man stood up and looked at me. As his forehead turned red, and his eyes started to water, behind his mask he said “thank you for stopping to let me greet your dog”. I wanted to ask him if he was having a rough day, but didn’t know how a complete stranger would respond to that.
That man needed a few minutes to receive some unexpected affection (and gentle leg-licking) from a small dog to help fill up an emotional void left by unknown-to-me circumstances.
His mask was hiding a lot from me, but his eyes and his words revealed deep pain. I hope our brief encounter helped him face the rest of the day with a small amount of peace in his heart.
I keep thinking about that encounter; not only wondering about the stranger, but about how wearing masks has changed us, and how not wearing masks in the near future will affect me. When I walk Toffee, I normally do not wear a mask, since we are definitely staying outside. Although if the streets get crowded I put one on. With case transmission so low right now, outside mask wearing is probably not even necessary, so do I want to keep wearing a mask to keep hiding myself from other people? Are my feelings and emotions safer while wearing a mask?
Reflections 