This holiday season is like no other that we have ever experienced. Covid19 has made sure of that. We have rules to follow. Wash your hands, stay 6 feet apart and wear a mask! Sometimes I want to take the mask off people to see what they actually look like, to see their lips moving when I ask, “how are you coping?”. Kind of like unwrapping a present, you just want to know what’s under the mask.
We are making history as we celebrate the holidays in the midst of a pandemic. This year we will be celebrating differently but what I love is that right now – we are all the same. We always were. This year let’s treat others with kindness, dignity and respect and remember that underneath that mask, we are all the same.
After a year of complex racial divide and theories around conspiracy when it comes to Covid let’s remember Martin Luther King’s words, Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
The lyrics from Buddy Guy’s song, “Skin Deep” seem to have more meaning now more than ever because underneath all of those masks we truly are the same.
Skin Deep lyrics by Buddy Guy
I’ve been around a while
I know wrong from right
And since a long time ago
Things been always black and white
Just like you can’t judge a book by the cover
We all gotta be careful
How we treat one another
Skin Deep
Skin Deep
Underneath we’re all the same
Skin Deep
Skin Deep
Underneath we’re all the same
We’re all of the same
A man in Louisiana
He never called me by my name
He said “boy do this and boy do that”
But I never once complained
I knew he had a good heart
But he just didn’t understand
That I needed to be treated
Just like any other man
Skin Deep
Skin Deep
Underneath we’re all the same
I sat my child down
When he was old enough to know
I said out there in the big wide world
You’re gonna meet all kind of folks
I said son it all comes down to just one simple rule
That you treat everybody just the way
You want them to treat you
Yeah
