Oh boy! It’s a boy for the Keel Family

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A new little man all dressed in blue has arrived to the Arcanum community! Oh boy, his name is Silas Alan Keel. He was born at Miami Valley Hospital on Dec. 30, 2020, to Mason and Aimee (Siert) Keel weighing in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and measuring 21 inches long. Big sister Sadie proudly announces the end of her reign as an only child and is elated to have a new sidekick in the house. Proud grandparents are Mark Siert, Gerald Keel, Rhonda McGlothin, and the late Marla Siert. Congratulations to the Keel Family. It’s now time for dirty diapers, sleepless nights, and endless love. Welcome Silas!

Arcanum Middle School will begin our Pennies for Patients campaign Feb. 1 to 12 to help fight leukemia. Start saving your coins and dollars to help the students reach their goal of $3000. This helps scientists do the research to find a cure. You can donate online at: https://donate.lls.org/lls/donate or go to the Arcanum Middle School Facebook page and select the link on their Facebook page.

Students from Arcanum Middle School participated in the Darke County Spelling bee last week and they are Sadie Waldo, Carson Miles, Hunter Eley, and Grace Psczulkoski who placed in the Top 5! Congratulations Grace!

So how many of you are asking yourself, “So how much longer do we have to keep wearing a mask?” I know I am so tired of it; I have been reading up on the changes coming with the vaccines now being administered and I keep reading that they continue to recommend that you still wear your mask. Our new President, Joe Biden says he will urge Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency. “Just 100 days to mask,” he said, “not forever.” That sounds manageable even for those of us who can’t wait to go maskless! Then I think, “But I’ve been wearing a mask already for the past 239 days!” (I think it was around the first of June when they made it mandatory out in public here in Ohio if I remember correctly.)

I’d love to stop wearing masks, how about you? They erase the subtleties of communication that tether us to humanity, the cues that give context and nuance to everyday interactions. Wouldn’t you just love to see someone smile back at you? Or be able to see the person you are talking to their full facial reaction during a conversation? That makes us feel two-dimensional. But we are far from done with wearing a mask until the vaccines are more widely distributed into our communities making it safe again. I hope that if we can accept this reality soon, we can focus more on building public support and distribution channels for quality masks. There’s room for someone to win a Nobel Prize for figuring out how to get Americans to wear their mask over their nose.

For the foreseeable future, even among the vaccinated, masks will at the very least be symbols of solidarity and empathy. That symbolism may have real consequences. The clearest, most urgent challenge of the pandemic remains simply getting people to wear masks (and wear them correctly). The message would be made more complicated by creating two classes of people, some who have to wear masks and others who don’t.

However long we have until the end of masks, we’ll get there far faster if we act together. As for me, I’ve taken to trying to find the most comfortable and efficient mask and have started picking ones that help celebrate the time of year! I tried a couple gaiters and couldn’t keep them on my nose, they kept slipping off. I tried several kinds of masks, some very difficult to breath out of; most of them steamed up my glasses and also some had the bendable metal piece in them to put over your nose. I guess they are supposed to be comfortable? Enough of my ruminating on the issue…

“His little hands stole my heart. His little feet ran away with it.” ~Joshua Riley

“You’re my favorite reason to lose sleep.” ~unknown

“A wee bit of heaven drifted down from above – a handful of happiness, a heart full of love. The mystery of life, so sacred and sweet. The giver of joy so deep and complete. Precious and priceless, so lovable, too. The world’s sweetest miracle, baby, is you.” ~unknown

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By Vickie Rhodehamel

Arcanum News for the week of January 25, 2021

Vickie Rhodehamel is a volunteer citizen columnist, who serves The Daily Advocate readers weekly with her Arcanum community column. She can be reached by calling 937-692-6188, by e-mail at [email protected]. Viewpoints expressed in the article are the work of the author. The Daily Advocate does not endorse these viewpoints or the independent activities of the author.

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