It's that time of year...Ballet Recital time!
This is my daughter's fourth year in ballet. She always looks forward to her recital because this is the big day she can put all her new moves on display to the world. It is always a big day for the family because we know all the hard work she puts into practice through the year and how much it means to her for us to watch her art on display.
Owned by me
This year was a lot different. The ballet students usually spend three months practicing for this one show. This year the students missed 7 out of the 12 practice classes due to COVID. The normal recital venue had to be changed because the usual venue is still closed due to the lock down. The audience for the recital was limited to immediate family and everyone was asked to wear a mask.
This is the part that gets interesting. We arrived at the recital a little early to get a decent parking spot. As we are sitting in the car we notice that people arriving and entering the recital venue are not wearing a mask. I can honestly say that no one in the family was very happy about having to wear a mask. So, we start talking..." Are we going to wear a mask"? "Are people putting them on once they get inside"? "Are they enforcing it"?
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So, we decide my wife will keep the masks in her purse; if they enforce the mask policy then we will wear one. We go up to the door and give the name for our will call tickets. We get through the door and still no one has said anything about a mask. We look around and none of the workers have on a mask. So, we just keep rolling with it. Finally, we get through the recital hall doors and are able to see the audience.
Not one person has a mask on. We are talking about a couple hundred people out of a town of about 4,000.
A sample size of a couple hundred people out of a 4,000 person population is nothing to sneeze at.
In my mind throughout the recital I thought "the people have spoken". I honestly expected a strict enforcement of the mask policy. Even if there wasn't enforcement then I would have at least expected a mixed bag of mask wearers and non mask wearers. But that wasn't the case. It was zero. nilch. nada.
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I know there are going to be people out there that say we are being irresponsible. I really don't think that. It honestly made me proud because people are obviously not taking the doom bait of the mainstream media. The projection figures being put out keep being updated because of their inaccuracy. The amount of COVID deaths are being tainted by the hospitals to receive higher COVID payouts. Fake studies are being released to the public with retractions coming weeks after the informational damage has been done....the flawed information to distort our reality is rampant.
It's nice to see my small town is paying attention. And I believe we made our stance known during a yearly Ballet Recital.