Post-COVID: Will it Wreck Interpersonal Meetings?

She walks up to her friend standing lonely in the post-church fray. It is immediately obvious. The look of fear in the eyes of her friend as she approaches, the shrinking back, did she want an announcement of “unclean, unclean!” beforehand?

Welcome to fall 2020.

After months of people sheltering-in-place, many in fear of losing their lives to a virus, they emerge and re-join community. But will they ever truly rejoin?

What is the damage to relationship if this person sees everyone who might interact with her as a disease-carrier – who might murder her with an accidental cough? Will she be able to embrace her friend in joy again? Has this episode ushered in a new era of how we interact as humans?

Touch is powerful.

A tender hug, a firm shaking of hands, a pat on the back. These carry power that words wish they possessed. There is a noble intimacy that physical touch brings – you can quickly judge how close friends are by personal space, stance, and touch.

So much is at stake and will be lost if the relational shockwaves of the pandemic persist. We weren’t meant to be solitary creatures and we weren’t meant to interact virtually, or from afar, or absent contact.

Will this be reality?

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