To Return to Normal, or Not

Believe it or not, in the new world, there will come a time when we don't have to worry about getting a life-threatening virus if we come to close to another person. But I've been reading a lot about predictions of an increased unwillingness to be close to other people in the new world. We are certainly avoiding physical closeness now – we've all got stories of visiting loved ones at a distance, or avoiding loved ones entirely. Or waving through the window, or from the driveway.

The question is, as we continue to stay distanced and take care about our physical space, will this tendency become ingrained, and will we come to naturally shy away from crowds and gatherings?

Probably, some will and some won't. I think most won't – in other words, most won't shy away, and life will generally return to normal in terms of concerts, restaurants, subways, beaches, church services and waiting on line in general.

But the normal we return to may be a bit different: enough people may retain their fear of closeness and build lives that are more isolated than they used to be. There may be enough of these folks that, in the new world, we will notice that groups and crowds and gatherings will be noticeably smaller.

This raises a lot of new questions. Will it be a good thing? A bad thing? Will it have an impact on the rest of us (“Where is everyone?” “Do they know something I don't know?”) Will those people who had been sociable beforehand and isolated afterwards – will they be OK? Will they need our help, or will they just be living their lives a little differently than we are?

Impossible to say, at this point, but with the opening of our societies and economies gaining steam right now, many of us are wondering how to choose: to join the return to normal, or not.