Thread by @1goodtern

A couple of weeks ago, I had a tricky meeting with a family in preparation for a funeral.
I knew in advance that one of the family is fiercely against mitigations like masks, so I was braced for trouble.

When I got to the meeting, he wasn't there, so he missed my prepared speech.

But he arrived later.

He stared intently at me the entire time. I picked up a fair degree of aggression from him, despite the fact that I was there to help bury a family member.

He couldn't resist saying something though, so as we were closing up, he asked if I would be masking for the funeral.

When I said that I would, he said that he didn't think that would be respectful to his mam.

Now this guy is very overtly religious. And he believes stuff like prayer keeps you well, and that you only get sick if you lack faith.

So I pulled out what I feel is my strongest emotional defence in the face of that kind of reasoning.

I said that I felt God had called me to make the sacrifice of wearing a mask to protect a vulnerable family member struggling with a serious health issue.

I said that it was hard to do, but that God had told me to do it, so that's what I was doing.

I said it with real sincerity because, hey, it's actually one way of expressing what I believe.

It struck home with him on a deep emotional level, and I felt all the aggression drop in an instant.

We chatted for a while about how I made it work.

He asked me if it had worked at keeping me well.

He was impressed to hear that I hadn't been sick since 2020.

We left on good terms.

He gave me a really big handshake at the funeral, and a word of approval.

Sometimes battles aren't what we think they are.