Socially Distant, But Still Together

In William Shakespeare’s immortal classic “Julius Caesar” the soothsayer warned him “Beware the ides of March” — wow, we could’ve used those words about 9 months ago. It was around that time that the whole world for lack of a better phrase “went to shit.” After moving its way across the world from China, the virus COVID-19 became a global pandemic and change our daily lives. A big part of that was the hottest buzzword phrase “social distancing.” Which was just a nice way to say “get the hell away from me, and don’t cough in my face.” But it was much more than that, we were actively discouraged from gathering socially, you couldn’t shake hands anymore and soon it was mandated many places that you cover your face with a mask. These are all huge asks for most people and against our base instincts. However if we are to get through this they are all necessary measures that we must follow. This all lead to the question, how will this affect us as a society longterm and how do we prevent it from making us all transform into anti-social hermits.

The most important thing to remember through all of this is that we aren’t alone, and we will get through this pandemic. We just have to remember the way things were before and not let this destroy us a society. Perhaps things will never be the way they were pre-pandemic, but maybe that’s a good thing. Even though we can’t always be physically together and may need to stay six feet apart right now there are still ways to stay together with friends and family. Thanks to technology we can all see each other from across the globe at a moments notice or even just send a message to a friend to say hello. Instead of letting this pandemic and social distancing tear us apart and hide our smiles we need to find other ways to socialize and show our compassion.

When I was young my mom would have me stand in front of the mirror and practice smiling, perhaps that is something everyone should do now. Except now you have to learn how to smile with your eyes and your tone of voice. We all have to remember that we are all one race, we all have a soul and blood pumping through our veins. We all have to remember to just be kind to one another. So even though we have to be socially distant right now, we can still be in each others hearts. You may not be able to see Mona Lisa smile, but you can feel it from the look in her eyes.