Not really. If God existed at all, which has to be the subject of some debate, I am certain that he/she/it would have better things to do. But that’s not the reason for the title today. It is from a Bette Midler song called ‘From a Distance’ and I use it to introduce a sort of part 2 to a previous post addressing the recently introduced social distancing diktats.
It seems incredible that this concept had never been heard of until a few days ago and now it is literally everywhere. The distance we must maintain is between 1 and 2 metres depending on which advice you choose to follow. As you might recall from my post, this roughly coincides with the space between us when ‘normally’ regarding one another according to Doug Harding’s Headless Way.
Strictly speaking we should describe it as physical distancing, one of the benefits of our apparent dependence on ‘the socials’ has been the way in which we have been able to maintain a semblance of virtual closeness despite our physical separation. That being said this does feel strange. There can’t be too many people that we choose to share, what we describe as, our personal space and the size that this area comprises certainly differs form one person to the next. I think that the 2 metre rule is probably just a bit too far. 1 metre and we probably wouldn’t even notice – depending on both the situation and the people involved, of course. Generally speaking, pandemics notwithstanding, we get physical distancing about right when we get to determine what it should be.
Social distancing, on the other hand, is clearly in need of some attention. All too often, we examine the minutiae of individuals lives in a level of detail that is clearly inappropriate. We hold these people accountable to a completely unattainable set of standards. At the same time we seem comfortable to label and condemn whole groups of people we disagree with on the scantest of evidence and with little or no attempt to understand them or their plight.
This casual use of archetype and stereotype has to be addressed.
Perhaps we should see one another as what we actually are – prototypes who, if we are to reach our full potential, need a lot of development and support.
For now though let’s come together in staying apart or there will be no possibility for some of us to become anything but a mark on an exponential graph.
We all deserve a better future than that.