phobia check iv

it's been a while since anyone has tried to force me to wear a mask. of course i still run a wide berth around establishments which still require masks. good luck getting me into an airport these days. i'll wait for you out front, my friend. there are still masks a-plenty OUT THERE, but i am near to being able to react to them as fashion statements. in my personal herstory, i have disliked far more fashion statements than i have loved. being forced to put brazierres over my flat chest gave me an attitude toward fashion from the get-go.

hearing the mask muffle remains a huge issue i am weary of repeating. i miss lip reading like a hearing impaired defective. i have taken to ignoring random sounds in the presence of random maskites. phantom noises are one of the rougher parts of my hearing defects and -- if i can't see your lips moving, you ain't talking to me. i doesn't give an FF if you know that, or knot.

in the required encounters --cash registers, etc-- i find it helpful to turn my head and close my eyes. removing the unuseful visual cues makes it easier to focus my hearing. i'm letting myself guess what has been said far more often than i used to. mis-hearing words has gotten me into LOTS and LOTS of trouble over the years. please, for your own safety, do not ask me to handle your phone calls. still, cash registers, etc., might be the most standardized vocabulary on the planet.

more and more i believe masks are here to stay. i find myself wondering about taking them in a spirit of religious tolerance, as i have always accepted muslim burqas. in that context. . . as it was in the beginning, it is now, until the end.