Neighbours

This is how we get to see our neighbours these days. On the highway, six feet apart.

Everybody has different standards and expectations for distance. And it’s important to discern that quickly so you don’t offend. Apologies are quick and sensitivities sharpened.

But dang, I miss shaking a hand or a hug or the like. Human interactions that cross the divide and are a part of being human. I never honestly thought of myself as a hugging person, more the opposite. But these days I can remember the two times I shook someone’s hand in the past six months, with fondness.

One time I even felt like the rejected when an individual misunderstood my movement and even though more than the required distance, they gasped in fear and backed away so quickly. And that was a friend.

I don’t know how long it might take the introverts to return to their past levels of interaction comfort, or if they even will be able to do that ever again.

It could be one of the things that’s permanently lost, at least to this generation.