Short one today.
The “spoon theory” provides another way of looking at masks and why I am so adamantly opposed to mandatory mask rules.
The “spoon theory” came from someone trying to explain the problems people with chronic health issues face. He gathered up all the spoons on a table then going through various tasks for day took out spoons showing that the daily “budget” of physical and mental energy was being expended. Once the spoons were gone, the person was done for the day.
With my own issues, wearing a mask doesn’t completely stop me _but_, it does increase the “spoon cost” for anything I do while wearing a mask. That means I run out of spoons quicker and am less able to do things. And when I have expended all my spoons on “this absolutely has to be done” tasks, there are none left over for “this makes life a bit nicer to live” tasks. My quality of life goes down precipitously. When you add in how little continuous mask wear does for the prevention of disease spread, to the extent that the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) recommends against it unless you’re sick or careing for someone who is sick, then the cost/benefit falls heavily on the “against” side.
And I’m one of the lucky ones in that my issues are relatively minor. Other people have it much, much worse.
But politicians feel the need to be seen “doing something”, even when that “something” actually makes life worse for the majority of people.
The Writer in Black 
I have been telling the enforcers at the front entrance of each building I enter that “I can’t wear a mask”. I let them interpret that as they will. Unfortunately our governor has issued yet another edict, cavalierly called “No mask, no service”. Businesses are supposed to make “other arrangements” which involve me not entering the store. Since I find it difficult to shop without seeing the products I am planning to purchase, this has hampered me and, if push comes to shove, will take much longer to do my shopping while also resulting in me not actually getting many of the products I needed. I am thinking about caving and just wearing the damn face covering.
It is also getting tiring having Karen’s harass me in public and not shooting them.
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PS That WHO story was from March. The current guidelines seem to be different and can be found here
https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1279750/retrieve
although you do have to dig down to about page 7
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I think mask wearing is problematic for many people with disabilities and linking spoon theory to this interesting (btw, it was a woman, not a man who thought of it 😉 ).
I just wrote my own post on spoon theory and I hope you come check out my post on spoon theory. https://strengththroughvulnerability.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/spoon-theory/
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