(ANTI-)SOCIAL DISTANCING

Having gone shopping for necessities, like you, we have probably noticed an interesting phenomenon in the experience.  The social component of shopping has been stripped of any social interaction with others.  Our trip to the store has become simply a necessary transaction to be done-with as quickly and safely as possible.

 It is, of course, very difficult to communicate while wearing a mask and staying at least 6 feet away from any other person.  The mask and the prescribed ‘social distance’ act as a barrier and introduces an implicit distrust and a fear of others as their being a potential threat to your own health or even your life. We look at each other with some suspicion, if we look at them at all, that they might be a ‘carrier’ of the dreaded virus. Especially is this so if we think their appearance fits with profiled characteristics of those who have been first afflicted—blacks, the elderly, those who are overweight, men, maybe those who we suspect as Chinese and those from ‘disadvantaged’ backgrounds. It manifests to others in ways similar to being in a strange land, or among people who don’t look like you, or don’t speak your language, or who do not share your values. 

These times are unsettling to those who thought they were settled.

All of this leads to isolation—which was intended by the authorities—to keep the virus from spreading, but also, unfortunately, leads to social withdrawal and the unintended consequences associated with that behavior.  

One of the consequences of ‘sheltering in place,’ or wearing a mask and gloves in public or constantly sanitizing one’s hands after touching anything is cabin-fever or a low-level paranoia and the syndrome associated with being by oneself or limited to one or a small number of immediate family.

Family is or can be one's greatest defense.  But we hear of those who find their family relationships beginning to be trying or compromised. People get edgy and inpatient; they become more sedentary, get out-of-shape, gain weight, are compelled to do some things they would not ordinarily do.

Steam can be let off under normal circumstances in common ways:  little-by-little through casual talking and interacting with others, engaging in normal routines, through exercise and walking in nature, through work in their normal work environment, through just being around others as in their churches, at restaurants, at public events, movies, etc. 

When pent-up people do come out into public, some begin acting out their frustrations about their way-of-life being threatened or rudely altered. They do this by deciding to take what they feel they had been denied: the things that they feel money can buy, their consequent deprivations because of lack of money, their fear of job insecurities, their real lack of income-to meet their needs for food and housing, their formal education being suspended, and their forecasts for a decent future  and hopes being dashed. 

Some get counter-reactive by engaging in social protest, unrest, even anarchy in venting their anxieties and needing to blame someone or something outside of themselves for their problems.  When personal dreams and aspirations are thwarted on a large-social scale that is when society and its public institutions can unravel and disintegrate very quickly. 

Anything can be a precipitating factor, a tipping-point that can lead to revolution—even war: then we have class against class, race against race, political polarization, the secular against the religious, have-nots against haves, youth against the aged, the well against the sick.

Learn the lessons of history  (which young people rarely learn these days) and then beware and prepare—especially if you are ‘privileged,’ or are a woman, or are of a class, race, culture, language, or place of origin where fearful things have been done by evil people in trying times.

The reality of our time is this: we are no longer insulated from anything—viruses, droughts, floods, fires, economic collapse, political instability, homelessness, or even starvation.  But there still is hope.  The answers are out there.  God is out there and He does not want to maintain a ‘social distance’ with you. You need to step into the light.

I end this somewhat gloomy social observation with an astute and overriding thought I received permission to copy from a Church talk given today by a good friend of mine.  Be aware of the other, but take this away as your bottom line and reflect on it often: 

          “May we . . . test positive for faith, keep distance from doubt, and isolate from fear, all the while we keep trusting in our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us the perfect way in all things, even spiritual preparedness.”

I have been taught in my Church: "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."