Social Distancing

​The sooner this virus thing is over the better. The difficulties I am experiencing are very small compared to what some are suffering that is for sure.  Still that does not make them any less real to me.
For example, I need to be at home during the week.  Talk about inconvenient.  Just a minute. That is the way it is for me every week.  Well instead of the weekend being my breakout time, I am at home.  Actually, not much change there.
What I really do miss is the capacity to get together and to shop without really thinking about it.  Ok on occasions I have failed to do what is asked of me.  It is never a matter of rebellion but a matter of habit. For more than 60 years I have been seeing people and shaking hands.  But if I fail to maintain a distance it is a chargeable offence now.
I really think I am doing fairly well adapting to the new rules, but I can miss the mark.  Not wilfully.  But my new actions go against what I have done in the past.  I must admit though, my desire not to catch the virus really is a great incentive to do it right.
I recently saw a person I know at the shopping centre.  It was really weird standing well apart having a conversation.  His wife is now in a nursing home and was recently beaten up by someone there.  He showed me a photo of her on his phone.  Being empathetic is harder at a distance.  He now plays harmonica and is in high demand.  That’s sort of on hold.
I am not keen on the term “social distancing.”  I like a term I have heard a few times.  “Physical distancing.”  I reckon man is a social animal.  We need each other.  I personally really enjoy getting together with people for a good chin wag. 
People have amazing stories.  To me they are as riveting as many movies and they are true stories.  I will always try to glean something from a movie, but when people talk of their experiences, I am all ears.  Not literally.
What they talk about can be superficial but interesting.  Other stuff they talk about can only be described as deep waters they have been though.  What I really want to know at that point is what sustained them.  Some of the things they have been through I never want to go through, but they did, and came out the other side.
Like that guy in the shopping centre.  He would have felt so helpless.  But despite the bad things he had a great attitude.  He knew what he had to do and did it.
Often people come through stuff changed.  Often times physically it is not for the better. But often they are a more whole person.  Not always, but often.
This virus thing is hard, but I want to come out of it a better person.