In these days of rampant COVID-19, it's all about "social distancing." Yes? Well, let's think about that for a moment. Distancing, yes. But actually it's all about PHYSICAL distancing, really. And what is the main side effect of physical distancing? An overwhelming need for social CLOSENESS. There's nothing like a few weeks in physical isolation or quarantine to make one scream for social closeness, whether by snail mail, email, phone, message (messaging is my personal favorite because I can communicate with photos as well), chat, blog or even yelling through the window across the street at one's neighbors. Two meters away. With a mask and goggles. Pausing to wash every 5 minutes for 20 seconds. 

So, actually we're doing everything BUT social distancing, and, weirdly, doing our part to maintain physical isolation and/or quarantine. I live in Honolulu on Oahu, the "Gathering Place." Look out the window and one thing for certain: NOBODY'S gathering. Well, they might be gathering food, toilet paper and...well, we're in Hawaii, so rice...but religious about never being in groups of 10 or more. Anywhere. Anytime. Knowing that probably tomorrow it will be groups of 5, then 2 (OMG, I won't be able to hug or kiss my partner anymore!) and eventually, less, though how one gathers in groups of less than 1 is anyone's guess. 

Seriously, for every bad thing that happens, and COVID-19 is truly bad, there's a silver lining. I've never appreciated all the social communication channels before like I do now. Same thing with social gatherings (I'm a ballroom/Latin dancer after all). It's an opportunity to slow down, watch a good movie, read (or in my case, write another) book, recall what it means to be human (money isn't everything - you can't eat it - well, you can but you'd have to be pretty desperate to eat dollar bills without one truly exceptional dressing). And power? Over what exactly when you can't congregate in groups of, well, for now, groups of ten, each person two meters away from each other. 


So what CAN we do? I think this is the perfect time to look critically at our failing infrastructure and how to either patch, improve or replace with something better. I mean that! In this crucial time, it's our infrastructure that's failing, not so much the people. That means relooking at how our government works, from politics to primaries to elections to ethics to the "C" word (compromise). And how about our medical system? Public health? Education? Transportation? And let's not forget the bug in the rug: Business. Isn't it time to stop giving each other the business and think about human service? It's time to move away from dissing whether it be dis-truction, dis-information, dis-integration and resurrect their opposites. A critical self-examination, right down to our reason for being a United States of America. 

Well, that's my two cents, for what it's worth.