Expressions of Love in Pandemic
I wanna talk about love in the time of COVID, y’all — for realz!
So, I talked about dating, but this is beyond that. Expressions of love during a pandemic done got so complex. I mean, example, my god child came for a writing retreat recently and the do-si-doh we had to do for the first week until we got our COVID test results back (negative...whew!) was ridiculous. I still felt weird giving them a hug.
There’s been so much of this. I look sideways when my dog walks up on another dog in the dog park. It’s not normal. I refuse that shit as my new normal. Somebody had the nerve tell me they would not be doing hugs until further notice. Even if they knew the health status of the person they might get a little loving from, they wasn’t fucking with no hugs. They said it was easier just to keep it simple and take hugs off the table.
We need an alternative to hugs in the time of COVID. I suggested to my friend that we just have a moment of silence for the hug that couldn’t be with us. Kind of like pouring one out. I suggested wearing black in mourning for all the hugs that went un-hugged. They refused. Whatever. I’ve never been all that into hugs anyway. Hugs are so last year, yo—so 2019.
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche had the right idea. They say we need to find ways to get emotionally closer together to make up for fact we got to stay six feet apart by getting six feet closer in our hearts. I been trying. To do that. I strike up more conversations with folks on the street. I wave at everybody. I talk shit to perfect strangers to get a smile out of ‘em. I let my dog sniff their dog’s butt.
Yeah, we gotta work extra hard these days to keep from losing touch with what it means to be a human being. We are hard wired for love, but recently had our software upgraded to some shit trying to be antisocial and autonomous. Autonomy is only possible in a world where the people supporting us aren’t seen as people. Otherwise we have to admit there ain’t much we can do on our own.
