One would probably think that a person could get a lot done being forced into social distancing. Yet for most, it is not the norm to be separated from the herd. I think, for the most part, people prefer to remain in the pack rather than to be a solitary hunter. That’s okay for there is safety in numbers if the numbers have the same agenda and resources are shared for the benefit of the herd. Here we are though, forced into seclusion. Even if our society’s social norm is through media our need for proximity to our own kind is threatened. How long until the isolation becomes too much to bear?

If you’re one of the lucky ones that can work from home, there is an avenue to keep busy and filled with a modicum of distractions. Yet even I, in my normal fortress of solitude, am succumbed to the ever-present cacophony of worry over the world’s events and crises. I find it difficult to focus with the anxiety and stress of it looming over my head. Whatever it is that I might be trying to do is interrupted by worrisome thoughts. Watching the events of the world unfold around me cripples my otherwise wandering mind. It is almost as if there is too much to focus on. And it is draining.

I look for small distractions and tasks to take me away for a moment here and there. I find that I am spending more time on social media than I normally do. Scrolling for silly memes that help to ease the worry through humor. Even I, who have a love/hate relationship with social media has found a need for it now. Yet I wonder if this forced quarantine of society will further the fall into the internet abyss. Will we become so dependent upon it that it will soon replace our need to form real social circles again? Will our fear distance our need for the herd? I wonder what the social norm will become.

Am I the only one who thinks about such things? I am not so arrogant to think so. Yet when this pandemic is over will I be the one to lead the charge into a social flock? I don’t think so. I will remain in my keep of comfort as I always have. It will be there that I hope to find the distractions that will remove the focus to the worries of the world surrounding me. It is in here that I watch to see what the world is doing. And hope, for the most part, that it just passes me by as the chaos of it all forces an emphasis toward a control that I do not own. Like the control of breeze through my fingertips.

Here I am, watching the separation of society, the distancing of our need to be together. A herd scattered by a foe that we cannot see. Will we find the courage to gather again? Will the fear of it all keep us removed? Only time will tell if the events of the day become our weakness or strength. The irony of my own situation, the want of social distance now being forced upon me, does not go unnoticed. Even I still want the freedom of choice. Even someone as socially awkward as I occasionally wish to graze within the safety of the social herd. Even if only to find a thought.