With each shot of the Covid vaccine, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel that grows a little brighter, a little closer each passing day. I’m starting to have hope that the end of social distancing and isolation is getting nearer. Almost every day, I see businesses and schools reopening.
I believe there are aspects that should remain after coming out of the Covid gloom. There were incidents and disciplines that made our lives safer, healthier and more considerate.
Covid was the biggest remote working experiment in history. It revealed that it’s possible to give employees choice without sacrificing productivity or experience. Employers will need to adapt and transform to support this massive shift in working culture. Needless to say, this is here to stay.
We should continue to wear masks when we’re sick. I think we’ve learned that protection should be looked at as smart and not frightening. This is about appreciating and protecting the people we interact with on an everyday basis and respecting their boundaries.
We should not force people to hug us and continue to protect personal boundaries. Hugs can certainly be nice, but the truth is that not everyone wants a hug. The pandemic has raised the awareness for physical boundaries. Respect for physical boundaries is a basic human right and shouldn’t be discarded once it’s over.
We should not abandon essential workers. The pandemic has brought big ideological shifts in how we see the world and how we conceptualize the value of work. Especially essential workers who were always “essential”- because the work they do has long been the only thing that has kept our society functioning at some level of “normality”.
We should continue to celebrate with loved ones around the world and keep holding virtual parties. Zoom has been the great convergence of a captive audience. We can now gather friends from earlier times and time zones in one virtual room. The ones we love but don’t see enough shouldn’t be taken for granted. We should re-arrange our living arrangements and use technology more to be closer to them.
We should expand restaurant culture to eating outdoors throughout the year. Now when we say we are “going out to eat” we literally mean we are not going to sit inside a stuffy restaurant. American dining can now go back to nourishment and socialization. A 2019 study by the Outdoor Foundation found that nearly half of all Americans do not participate in any outdoor recreation, while only 17.9 percent even go outside at least once a week.
We should continue to go on walks in the middle of the day and without a specific destination. With the work day expanding and the world narrowing, walking became the thing to do. It was time to wander, and focus our eyes on something other than an LED screen. Even small periods of movement matter. Who had time to go on walks during the workdays before?
Being aware of our mortality keeps us in touch with what’s meaningful. Covid has brought into focus one of the great certainties of life: death. The reality of mortality is now part of our consciousness. As things ‘lighten up’ we move forward with the awareness that we remain mortal.
In essence, I think we have all started to accept that there are forces greater than us at play.
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