tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post2227023404665338727..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Worship PerspectiveAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-10980321308206951692022-02-06T22:56:14.449-05:002022-02-06T22:56:14.449-05:00while the congregation stands and reads silently f...<i>while the congregation stands and reads silently from the hymnal.</i><br /><br />Unlike pre-covid, I'm now one of the silent ones in the congregation. <br /><br />I'm really happy that we're no longer <i>forsaking the assembling of ourselves together</i>.<br /><br />But as we're gathered together on one room, I can't help but be conscious of the age and health profiles of those (appropriately distanced) around me. <br /><br />Because of my employment, I interact daily with a lot more people than most of the other congregants. And if there's anything that could make a potentially-infected 'me' 99-times-more-infectious than just being in the room and breathing, it is singing¹. <br /><br />Maybe it is the decades-ago vocal training, but even in singing very quietly, I can tell that my between-phrase breaths are overcoming the normally-good-seal at the edges of my mask, and that my mask isn't built to accommodate opening my mouth as much as I instinctively do when I sing.<br /><br />So I participate by reading along with mouth closed and no vocalization. I know that I'm missing out on some of the neurophysiological benefits and pleasure of worship, and that not having such hearty singing to join may dim the endorphin and dopamine boost in others. But so far my off-the-cuff cost-benefit analysis tells me that I'd feel horrible if I learned that I'd come to church with an asymptomatic infection and others had health complications as a result.<br /><br />I've kept very quiet about this decision except to those who have noticed and asked, and I'm not trying to change anyone else's practice. I am just doing myself what seems most prudent.<br /><br />Douglas2<br /><br /><br />¹<i>https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93281-x#Sec2</i>Douglas2https://www.blogger.com/profile/11290012200563917585noreply@blogger.com