Keeping Together While Keeping Apart

You are not alone in this. Image courtesy of Arisa Chattasa via Unsplash

By now, ‘social distancing’ is a phrase we are hearing or repeating on a daily basis. Things are changing fast. If you feel confused and scared, know you are not alone. Even when it seems like we are alone, we’re in this together.

In just a little over two weeks we have slowly inched toward a new world in which we are being asked to socially distance ourselves from others. The threat of coronavirus (COVID-19) is so great our country, like much of the world, is urging every American to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people, avoid restaurants and bars, for students and parents to work from home if at all possible, shutting down many public areas including mass transit, and in some cases, “locking down” entire states all together.

Humans have evolved to be generally social creatures and without that human connection we are all so used to, our internal voice may shift. As history shows we’ve lived in groups — in villages, communities and family units. We have relied on (and crave) that interaction with other human beings, keeping apart is not natural to us. Daily inconvenience is now morphing into fear as we each move into new, potentially lonely, daily rhythms. Some people are even finding their daily routine does not include employment or the prospects for the future of one to make matters worse.