It has been nearly 4 months since most of us started to hear about and understand the global pandemic that is COVID-19. I marked the date in my city as 3/11, when the NBA very abruptly began cancelling games and large events, concerts and the like started disappearing off calendars. If I had known then what I know now, I might have checked Craigslist for tickets to that Tool show on 3/11. I’m sure I would’ve been freaked out about potential community spread even then, but at the moment, it would’ve been the best concert of my life, or at least the last in a LONG while.

I’ve spoken before about how actions you take affect other people and how you can inspire good in the world by contributing positively, putting good out into it. Alternatively, you can be purposefully cantankerous, argumentative or trolling, generally putting people down or bullying others. There are choices you make every day that go toward how you present yourself to other people. Right now, with the pandemic raging through most of the country, taking lives with it, the most constructive, positive, helpful thing you can do for others is to put on a mask when you go out of your house to a store or other essential activity.

A simple cloth mask doesn’t necessarily offer you the greatest protection from breathing in the virus if others aren’t also masking. But what it does do is protect others from you and your germs at no cost to you. You are not putting yourself at greater risk if anything by wearing a mask. It might be inconvenient or you might think it is unsightly or uncomfortable. But aren’t other people’s health and lives worth more to you than your comfort or convenience for a short temporary period of time? It is literally the least you can do.

When this is all over and we finally bring down the cases of coronavirus infection, it wil be because of the collective effort of all Americans looking out for others. Which side do you want to be on? And how will you contribute?