MASKS

Ellie and I started on a walk in Heisler Park in Laguna Beach on Sunday. The steps from the boardwalk lead up to a long, narrow path that follows the edge of the cliff and overlooks the breakers, up close, and the long view of the great Pacific Ocean. It's an inspiring sight, and one that's enjoyed by both residents and visitors, particularly at the weekends.

I say "started" because we didn't make it very far along the path. It is narrow, in some places allowing far less than the recommended 6-foot social distancing. We are of an age where it seems smart--if sometimes distressing--to observe the basic rules of the coronavirus era: maintain that distance from your fellow walkers and, where that's not possible, wear a mask. It seems prudent, from what we hear, to wear a mask in any event when you're out in a fairly crowded situation. And Heisler Park, on a Sunday morning, is inevitably crowded.

But... no masks. Or very few in evidence. So we chose to leave the beaten path and walk instead along the (nearly) parallel sidewalk on Cliff Drive where we encountered fewer people.

We seemed to have reached a point of social responsibility fatigue, with many of our fellow citizens simply giving up on the protections we all had all agreed upon just a few short weeks ago. Our attention span is apparently exhausted, and the situation is exponentially exacerbated by the mass protests over the death of yet another black American at the hands of the police. There are many who are wearing masks, in the television images I see... and many who are not.

There is a small chance, insofar as I understand these things, that herd immunity will take over in this circumstance and prove that our precautions were excessive. But we won't know the results of all this "opening" for another two or three weeks.