The pandemic continues. Some parts of the country are allowing masseurs back to work, others are not. I live in a place where we are not allowed back yet, though again, many have never stopped working. The rate of cases here has not slowed down yet so I am ok with putting off working far a bit yet. If there were an antibody test that was reliable and readily available, I would love to take it. If I knew that I had some immunity I would feel much better about letting strangers lie naked on a table in my home for 90 minutes at a time while I work over them.... ;-)
I have painted just about every room in my house, including closets. I have worked on the landscaping around my home. I spent a lot of time watching movies and working on puzzles and reading. I spend an hour or so each day contacting people I know from various periods of my life to check up on them. My husband and I play board games, a lot.
Every day I get contacted for massage work. Most are regular clients who wonder when I will go back to work. Telling them that I will obey the Governor's non-essential business guidelines, seems to go in one ear and out the other. Financially, I am still okay - not great - but okay. I can last another month or two without panicking.
At this time of social distancing, people are more touch deprived than ever. An elderly friend of mine sent me a message after a doctor's appointment how startled she was that he touched her arm, and then she realized no one had touched her anywhere on her body in over a month.
My fellow masseurs have some differing opinions about what to do now. Some have closed, like me, not only for the sake of themselves and their families but for the good of their clients. Others who have remained open (against the edicts handed down from their states) have said that business is slow, but the tips are good. The clients they are seeing are exclusively those who want sensual work (even if their normal practice is mostly 'legit' work).
I feel bad for my clients on many levels. While they have the option to go see another therapist, many don't feel comfortable with that option. For many, I am the only male that they have ever let touch them in such an intimate manner and they feel safe with me. So for them this interruption of life has been even more difficult. Imagine, if you will, that you crave the touch of another man and had been denied it for most of your life for one reason or another. You finally work up the courage to pay for a massage from a man and discover the touch that you had so longed for. You build up a level of trust with your masseur that goes just beyond simple touch and see him a regular basis to keep your life in balance. Then suddenly, the option is taken away from you and you are stuck at home. You feel as though you are right back to where you started again, except now you have the knowledge of what you were actually missing.
Then you have the men in sexless marriages who are now locked up with their spouses. Marriages turn sexless for a lot of different reasons - incompatible partners, sex drives, preferences, communication, apathy etc. The level of stress that must be experienced by these people during this time must be pretty high. Growing up in the great Northland, we called it Cabin Fever, seeing the same people over and over with no ability to get away from them. It can be difficult to even find the time and place to jack off.
So I understand the stress out there and I feel for all of you. I hope you all stay safe and sane until we can see each other again.
