Covid-19: What will the new normal be?

Dubai - 'Don't come near me' in the present context is no longer seen as bad manners.

Someone asked me what the new normal will be. I had no answer. I don't know. I can guess with a modicum of intelligence that it will be different from the old normal. Many things we won't take for granted, like quality time, family, acts of kindness, tolerance of each other. Just being more mindful of one another and sensitive to each other's needs. Being more giving.

If there is one thing we have learned these past few weeks, it is our awesome irrelevance. We are all so expendable. It doesn't matter how rich or powerful, when the chips are down, we count for diddley. Up until this point and a little while longer we will not only have the stamina to hang in there but even get back to what was before. If there is a fear, it is that a prolonged 'captivity' to the virus might change the world so dramatically that there won't be any coming back.

And the concept of the new normal will be up for grabs. Will the tactile element of the human experience fall away into nothingness? Will we be suspicious of every sneeze? Will distancing become intrinsic to human conduct? As insularity dictates our lives when will we sit comfortably on a flight or a train or a bus next to a stranger without a surge of fear?

'Don't come near me' in the present context is already not seen as rude. If we had said that to someone in February it would have been seen as extreme bad manners.

They say for every action there is an opposite reaction that is equal. It can only be the vaccine or the heat of summer that shrivels up the outer skin of this virus and renders it inactive.

In the interim we have to show the forbearance and courage that soldiers show in war when they face the bullet. In a way we are all soldiers in this war and no government can fight it if the people do not listen.

Someone has coined a word: covidiot. It refers to the people who don't understand that if they do not follow the orders given they are endangering themselves and us. If you know a covidiot, stop him.