Has anyone else noticed this?
Although the corona pandemic actually remains in full swing (and, thanks to omicron, swinging higher in terms of numbers than ever before), most countries including Germany are quickly shedding most of their corona-related restrictions. For instance, the train station here in Not-Bielfeld recently removed the signs indicating which side of the stairs one should use. (Fair enough. Like anyone ever paid attention to those.) Even the University here has caught the bug. Despite Not-Bielefeld currently being close to the top 10 in terms of infection rates in the country, the University just dropped its 3G requirement as well as that for FFP2 masks. Same virus as a week ago, but apparently suddenly less dangerous today so that a second-rate mask will do.
As a result, masks nationwide are happily being tossed aside as well to reveal some long sought after full-frontal (facial) nudity.
Now, in the case of most of my undergrad students, these are people that I only know with masks on. Some hair, two eyes, and a pair of sore ears were pretty much the only facial landmarks of theirs that I had to go by. From the nose on down was a complete mystery and my imagination had to fill in all the details. And now where the mystery has been revealed, my imagination turns out to have been very imaginative. And usually dead wrong.
And for some strange reason, the truth, more often than not, came across to me as more disappointing than my imagination. It’s not so much that the truth was different, but more so that I somehow expected it to be better and also to fit better to that little bit that I could see from before.
I have absolutely no idea what this all means. The simplest explanation is that I’m a jerk and is one that I’m not ready to cast aside. It could also be that my (our collective?) concept of beauty tends to focus on the eyes. At least from the neck skywards. You often hear how eyes are beautiful or the gateway to the soul. Noses? They’re much more often the gateway to snot, especially when they don’t happen to have a rapid antigen test currently shoved up them. Definitely not sexy. Mouths are problematic though because there are such things as dazzling or beguiling smiles. Like I said, I just don’t know.
What I do know, however, is that if my experience is true for most people, then the singles dating scene must’ve taken an awful hit over the past two years. Instead of waking up and thinking “Oh my God. What did I bring home last night?”, that thought probably didn’t make it to the morning after that often and instead was transferred to last night right after the masks came off …
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