THE FUTILITY of the SISYPHUS DILEMMA

Originally Published the Week of Feb. 22, 2022 in Western Outdoor Publications

          As many of you know,  my wife Jill and I are “on tour” criss-crossing the U.S. from January to March in our rig.  These are the months when we’re exhibiting at the fishing and hunting expositions with our booth on behalf of our Tailhunter Fishing Operation in La Paz and generally just trying to be good ambassadors for both the U.S. and Baja.

         We’ve been on the road now for 6 weeks.  At last count, we’ve been in 11 states.  

I can’t begin to tell you every city and town we’ve stopped in. We’ve had shows in Reno, Sacramento, Seattle, Salt Lake City and, most recently in Portland.

         So, almost everywhere, there are now mask mandates.  Hotels, restaurants, stores, gas station, fast food joints.  Signs are pretty much everywhere.  I get it. 

         Some are enforced more than others. Most really aren’t enforced much at all.  When we go into a place, we look around.  If others have masks on or are giving us “stink eye” (pretty rare) we pull up the shields. 

         And pull them back down when we are clear. 

         Just part of life these days.

         However, we just finished a huge show in Portland, Oregon. 

         Now, Portland is pretty strict about their masks.  Everyone one is pretty tight about it.  Right or wrong, it is what it is.  I don’t make the laws or rules.

         But, at the 5-day show we attended called the Northwest Sportsmens Expo, some interesting things happened.

         First, the city of Portland and the managers of the gigantic Portland Expo Center told the show producers that there would be strict enforcement.   All vendors and attendees MUST have masks on all the time.

         Whether walking around; in the booths; or in the bathrooms.  Cover up!

         Or, the City was gonna shut down the show!

         Everyone also had to keep social distancing when talking to each other.

         So, I heard there were about 500 booths and vendors.  Grizzled hunting outfitters from the northern woods and plains of the U.S. and South Africa, Asia and South America. Weathered cowboys running pack operation in the mountains.  Former military guys representing gun and archery manufacturers.  River guides and bush pilots.  Mountain men and charter boat skippers. 

         And then there were about 10,000 attendees walking through the place and trying to talk to vendors and outfitters.

         These aren’t the kinds of folks who seem to be too accustomed to being told how and what to do.  It’s a rather self-sufficient and independent crowd.

          Get my drift?

         So, the first day of the show, we got constant booming announcements over the P.A. about keeping our masks on at all times.

         Green-jacketed “mask cops” also walked around telling you to pull up your mask or telling folks to step back from booths so that we were 6 feet away from each other trying to do transactions.

         Oh, and they were also taking names and there were threats of citations.

         We kinda bristled.  When you’re right in the middle of talking to a prospective client and told you  gotta step back, its impossible  trying to talk to each other from 6 feet away with a mask over your face. 

And the ambient noise of several thousand folks also trying to talk and shout at each other through masks doesn’t help.

         Being in Mexico most of the time, this was really the first time I’ve been in a “mega event” where masks and other protocols were being enforced.

         We all got to be like little school kids seeing what we could get away with.

         We’d signal each other when a green-jacketed mask police was coming down the aisle.  Or, we’d suddenly grab a drink and pretend we were eating or munching on something.

         And we’d smile and wave at the mask police officer!

         Quite telling was what happened during the Star Spangled Banner.

         Every morning at these expos, the Star Spangled Banner is played just before they open the doors to the public.  All of us several hundred vendors and outfitters stop what we are doing. 

         We all silently face the flag on the wall of the facility with hands and hats over hearts…as it should be!  It’s a moving red-white-and-blue moment every morning.

         But, one of the first mornings, right in the middle of the solemnity of the flag salute, they broke into the anthem and stopped the music.  Over the P.A, they reminded us all in no uncertain terms that we MUST wear our masks.

         Simultaneously, the green-jacket mask police walked up and down the aisles.  Not even saluting the anthem or the flag they brislkly  trotted up and down the aisles taking names and telling vendors to pull up their masks.

         There was something really wrong with that.  There was a disturbance in the force and a number of other outfitters expressed the same sentiment.  It grated on alot of us. 

          Imagine at a sporting event like a baseball game where they stopped the playing of the national anthem to remind everyone, “Now that we have your attention, we remind everyone to wear their masks or you will be thrown out!”  We now return to the music! 

         As one outfitter later commented, “That was the current state of the U.S. in a nutshell.”  Another said, “It felt anti-American.”

         Over the next 4 days, I noticed a silent smirking revolt.

         None of us wore our masks anymore.   Fewer and fewer of the attendees were wearing their masks. 

         Neener neener to masks.  Up yours (with a smile).

         The mask police retreated little-by-little.  They actually started gently apologizing for asking folks to wear masks. And smiling.  I guess they didn’t exactly like their jobs either.

         Or they simply began to recognize the futility of it. 

         When you have several thousand people thumbing their noses at the mandate, what were they going to do?

         They eventually gave up. Even some of the mask officers stopped wearing their masks. The last few days of the show, most folks didn’t have masks unless they wanted to wear them. 

         Laws have no teeth if no one enforces them.

         It reminded me of the Greek god Sisyphus who was cursed by the other gods to roll a huge boulder up a hill for all eternity.  When he got to the top, the boulder just rolled back down the other side.

         Agree or disagree with masks, but it was interesting to watch the transition.

That’s my story!

Jonathan