Unplugged

The new normal. I rather like it. Yesterday, I saw more children out riding their bicycles and playing gleefully out of doors (only with siblings, of course, and not too close to a neighbor child). It was a lovely sound: children’s chatter and adult laughter carried on the breeze of a sunny spring day. Each morning when I run, I see other people also running or walking (not too many and one of us always crosses the street as we get closer). Sometimes whole families are out walking. It’s a new and welcome sight, although I do enjoy the silence of nature punctuated only by the birdsong that leapt to life some few weeks ago.

I love this new normal; this world where parents and children have unplugged themselves, some more than others I am certain, from their constant attachment to electronic devices spewing apparently captivating video and audio providing non-stop entertainment to the exclusion of all else. All others. I love this new normal where families take walks and actually take in their surroundings and communicate with each other with eyes that see and lips that speak without the need for a keyboard and a screen, a handheld device or a laptop, a home theater or a home office.

Unplugged. Yes, I know there are many things very wrong with this new normal that finds many alone and all six feet from all strangers and so many unexpectedly six feet under. The economic fallout will be – already is – harsh, the repercussions deep, myriad and long term. The sociopsychological impact will no doubt have ripples throughout society for more years than I have left on this earth. Improvements in ethnic, religious and/or racial relations worldwide are coming under attack because people are afraid. Previously tenuous relationships are ripping at the seams as people around the world resort to violence, anger and scapegoating. Fear of the virus, yes, but more fear has erupted because of hunger, imminent or present. Politically, I am quite interested in a rather morbid way to see how this surprise viral disaster affects both domestic and international relations. Things are off to a chilling start.

But despite all the very obviously negative, I still find joy in seeing so many unplugged from virtual reality and reinserted into the world around them. Reconnecting with those whom they love and who love them.