A story about wearing masks, quickly adapting kids, truths and dead mothers.
Not to be too philosophical - but nobody knows what reality is, what this world/universe is. We all "learn" and decide what is "true". Once decided, it's hard to reopen the evaluation process - for many grown-ups in particular.
I was taught philosophy from a very young age - starting around 8. I grew up knowing that I know nothing and that everything is a personal view. So I can adapt to almost anything, just like children. Wear a mask, ok - on day one I was wearing a mask, secretly laughing at the people pointing fingers.
Children are still discovering the world, building their "truths". Let's put this in example:
For you and me, water comes out of a tap. That is how it works. It is normal. For our great great grandparents, this was not normal. Walking to a well was normal.
For us, seat belts are normal and considered safe. For many of our parents, it was a scary thing: "Strapped inside a death cage to burn alive - not a safety feature at all! - How to jump clear of the car if you're locked in?"
For kids these days, the internet is like tap water. They never experienced having to connect to a server with a dial-up modem. Internet is just "there". A “new normal”.
The same goes for masks.
Always remind yourself daily: there is no one answer. Keep searching. Adapting becomes second nature. Some will say you flip-flop and don't have a real opinion. But alas, "truth" is only an opinion that many share. There is no answer, there is no truth.
“Embrace the absurd.” Albert Camus
For a nice read on problems adapting, read up on Wikipedia about a Doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis. He said that hand-washing reduced death rates in mothers after giving birth. The entire scientific community decided he was an idiot, even after he presented data that showed the effectiveness of handwashing between dissecting dead bodies and pulling out a newborn...
He was laughed out with words like: "as if a man's hands are somehow unclean and full of invisible -germs- or whatever".
He died after an infection from a cut after being beaten in the mental ward.
