Member-only story
A Pandemic is a Confusing Social Experiment
What can we learn from it?
The time we are living in is as confusing as it is uncertain.
When the pandemic first started, I would go for walks to get fresh air and runs to get exercise. Walking by other people, I would make eye contact, smile, and they would smile back at me.
Fast forward several weeks into the minimization of human contact, and now when I go for a walk or run, people who pass by me no longer look me in the eye. No smile on their faces, no happiness in their eyes, just moving on their not-so-merry way. Perhaps it’s because they are tired of the current self-isolation situation, or because no one can forecast when this crisis will end. Everyone around the world is eager to get back to ‘normal’ life. However, no one knows what that will look like.
Just last week, I went to go into my condo elevator and two men shot their hands up in front of me in protest. “Only two people in the elevator at a time,” one of them said, as he repeatedly pressed the CLOSE DOOR button. The door shut quietly in my face, almost as if in slow motion. I felt very rejected.
Not only is this pandemic draining much of our collective positive spirit, but it also appears to be dividing us. Whether we like it or not. And whether we are aware of it or not.
