For two years of a pandemic, we have been isolated from one another. John Donne said that no one is an island, but we have all been castaways shipwrecked upon our loneliness. “Distancing,” although already in the dictionary, became essentially a newly coined word, defining a new social practice that became a new psychological condition. Now, all across the United States, restrictions have been lifted so suddenly and completely that some people are understandably confused and distrustful. We were told for so long that you could die from being in a room with other people, or that you might possibly kill some of them. Some people are still masking, and I find their caution completely understandable. Still, every time I go to the grocery store, I see fewer masks—the last time, only three in the entire store. We have discovered something about ourselves through this pandemic. We have discovered how intensely we hunger for immediacy, for presence, for an unmediated contact with other human beings. Yes, even a naturally reclusive introvert like me.
March 18, 2022
March 18, 2022
March 18, 2022
For two years of a pandemic, we have been isolated from one another. John Donne said that no one is an island, but we have all been castaways shipwrecked upon our loneliness. “Distancing,” although already in the dictionary, became essentially a newly coined word, defining a new social practice that became a new psychological condition. Now, all across the United States, restrictions have been lifted so suddenly and completely that some people are understandably confused and distrustful. We were told for so long that you could die from being in a room with other people, or that you might possibly kill some of them. Some people are still masking, and I find their caution completely understandable. Still, every time I go to the grocery store, I see fewer masks—the last time, only three in the entire store. We have discovered something about ourselves through this pandemic. We have discovered how intensely we hunger for immediacy, for presence, for an unmediated contact with other human beings. Yes, even a naturally reclusive introvert like me.