THE whole world has been told to observe “social distancing” but the more accurate term might be “physical distancing.” After all, we’re not being asked to sever our social connections, ONLY to stay home.
As social beings, social connection is crucial for our survival and significance. Different people, however, have different social needs. Quarantine, stay-at-home orders and physical distancing do not have the same effects on everyone.
For someone like me who works from home and likes to spend her weekends doing the laundry, quarantine restrictions have had no significant social impact in my life. Staying home has been my norm — for many years now.
For some people, however, quarantine restrictions are driving them up the wall. Hence, the essential, official semantic change from “social distancing” to “physical distancing” by the World Health Organization — to drive home the message that we’re being asked to stay away from our loved ones NOT being asked to stop loving them.
In fact, if we love them, we should stay away from them.
We’re being asked to physically distance NOT to socially disconnect. We can still be in constant contact, just NOT in physical contact. Communication, connection and conversation can continue but on a different platform — on the screens of our phones.
But aren’t we lucky that this pandemic came at a time when we already had the means to connect and communicate through space and distance in real time?
In isolation, we can still interact. Apart, we can still stay connected. We can’t occupy the same physical space but we can still occupy each other’s hearts. The digital age has made this possible.
Is this a new-world order? Not really.
Once upon a time, a similar world order minus the technology today was in place. Lovers separated by continents wrote love letters that took two weeks for one letter to arrive to one side of the world and another two weeks for the reply to reach the other side of the world. Four long weeks to communicate with each other.
Physical distance. Patience. Sacrifice. Self-denial. This characterized some of the most searing love stories in the old-world order. Maybe, it needs a revival.
In the age of immediate gratification, physical distancing can be difficult for many. But if you can find the courage to have faith, you might discover that a lull can bring clarity to your relationships.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Patience builds character. Abstinence makes everything feel so much better — the next time you’re together. And as the good governor of Cebu says, “If it is true love, it can wait.”
I say, let’s stay apart, slow the spread of the virus and fall madly in love again, the next time we occupy the same physical space together.