Chinese Version
06-25-2021，Friday, Cloudy
In the afternoon, my daughter and I went to Waltham’s riverside path for a walk.
Even without rain, I enjoyed the fresh and humid air that comes after the rain, because the dense trees on the path retained the wet and fresh left by last night’s rain. We occasionally saw pedestrians who were running, walking, cycling, walking dogs, or pushing children on the path.
When I saw a little boy sitting in a stroller, I waved my hand and smiled to him, and the little boy beamed.
I turned to my daughter who was walking behind me and said, “Did you see the little boy in the stroller smile sweetly?”
My daughter said, “Because the little boy can finally see our smiles now.”
I looked back and asked, “What does ‘can finally see our smiles’ mean?”
My daughter replied, “Do you remember Professor W’s retirement celebration party?”
I slowed down and answered: “Of course I remember it. But I don’t know what the party has to do with ‘can finally see our smiles’.”
As we walked side by side, my daughter told me a story about everyone wearing masks on Professor W’s balcony that day.
“On May 6, 2021, a classmate took her baby and her three-year-old daughter M to the party to celebrate Professor W’s retirement. At the party, all the adults were wearing masks. When M saw many the strangers wearing masks, she was uneasy and held a corner of her mother’s shirt to hide behind her mother.
M’s mother explained: ‘Because of COVID-19, today is the first time in more than a year that M has seen so many strange adults, so she is a little scared.’
Then, one student joked: ‘And so many strangers with no facial expressions under their masks.’
The baby who was in her mother’s arms was the only one didn’t have a mask on so we could see that she was smiling.
When Carey, with caring nature, saw the smile of the baby, he bent down and said: ‘do you know we are all smiling (under our masks) ?’
M probably understood Carey, and soon after she relaxed to chose something from the bouquet of fruit Professor W offered to her and began to eat Shirah’s cake. ”
After telling me the story, my daughter added: “In 2020 and early 2021, children rarely had a chance to see strangers’ smiles, because at that time everyone wore masks.”
I said, “Now I know that ‘can finally see our smiles’ is because we no longer wear masks.”
The smile perceived by other’s eyes always sweetens the heart directly. However, during COVID-19 restrictions, the smile was shielded by the mask and the smile givers had to use language to convey their smiles behind the mask, and the smile recipients had to use their ears to understand the roundabout kindness.
The global impacts of COVID-19 are big things; The masks shielding ordinary people’s smiles are small things. Big things and small things are coming together, because they are all about the quality of life of ordinary people.
Little Episodes
1. On June 27, 2021, my friends across three continents exchanged views on the COVID-19 situation
ZhenZhen, in Sydney, Australia, sighs: “COVID-19 is over? We just started shutting down the city last night for two weeks. ”
HongEr, my high school class-desk-mate in Chengdu, asked, “No masks in the USA?”
“We’re still wearing masks, a thousand people have the same stereotyped face. We don’t see happiness, anger, sadness or joy,” said Lin, an alumnus of triple in Canada
Ru, an alumnus of CUA, in Maryland, said: “it’s real. I think I need to learn to adapt to all kinds of smiles again. For more than a year, I rarely saw other people’s full faces. I can only judge who my friends are from their clothes and figure. This life is finally liberated.”
2. On May 6, 2021, at Professor W’s retirement celebration party, the mask-wearing adults and the lovely little girl M.
The little girl M is selecting her favorite fruit string in front of the two professors.
