Stay home and try the online party therapy, it works

Dubai - Don't mistake the #StayHome order as a command to be lonely.

Friends of ours had a party last afternoon. Five of them each brought their own snacks and coffee, and the five ladies had a splendid hour linked up on one of those interactive audio-visual platforms and they all felt the better for it. The happy catch was that the five snacks were to be rotated. Like if you brought sandwiches, then next week someone else would and you would take over a dish from one of the others.

We tend to think of connecting only out of concern, to see each other and reassure ourselves that everyone is fine. But as a kind of online party, we still are chary of having fun. Not the right time. The mood is not there. Who wants to exchange gossip?

Actually, if we are really honest, a little outstretch to grasp a slice of normality would be a wonderful sensation. And therapeutic. These five chatted like they would have eight weeks ago, they discussed recipes and they laughed a lot. For a brief, shining moment Covid-19 and its cloak of grimness was shed and life was sweet. This get-together underscores the point that many of us are overlooking. We are as humans gregarious, we thrive on company and we might be mistaking the 'stay home' order as a command to be lonely. That is not true. Lonely only makes things worse. Don't make that mistake. Get in touch, have an on-screen get together, talk a little, laugh a lot. Watching movies, a streaming concert, memes from strangers, exhausting forwards, these are lonely exercises, they actually depress you even more. You need your friends, your gang. In fact, my slightly nutty friend in Delhi calls three others and they simultaneously put on the same movie in synch with popcorn and snacks to boot and they stay on the line and watch it together, making typical wise-guy comments through it. It is so much fun, he says, beats watching it alone for sure.

So, do yourself a favour, have a party, even if you want to put on your dancing shoes then do it, friends are what will see you through. Who knows, tomorrow a bridge session.