Risk is a part of life.
Everyday, when you leave your house to go to work, go grocery shopping, or whatever, you are at risk. That risk is that the other people on the road are as responsible as you are. Most of us know, that’s not true. In mty small city (about 50K population), I’m always very aware of drivers around me. As I’ve become older, it’s been more so. People drive in and out of traffic, changing lanes without notice, and sometimes, slow down enough to impede traffic and invariably cause an accident. That’s in my small city. It’s not unusual to hear fire and rescue sirens at all hours of the day.

Yet, when I have to run errands (shopping, or whatever), I’m out. If I seriously considered the number of times during the day I heard those same sirens, I might never leave my home. Hey! I can now have groceries delivered to my home the same day. all I have to do is go to the store website, order and pay. Within a couple of hours, here are my groceries.  Before our lockdown, that service wasn’t available where I live. I hope it remains once it’s over. I don’t mind paying a delivery fee on top of the cost of the items plus tax.

All of this because of COVID-19. We may just have crossed into a new normal. Why take the risk of going to the local grocery store and contracting a deadly virus when those services can come to your home? This makes me wonder what will be the new normal after this initial crisis is over. We may all speculate but I think it’s possible that what we once considered “normal” will not be that in the future. We are  beings that are willing to take risks that are unknown (driving) but after this virus is contained, will be be the same toward each other as we were before? I tend to think not.  I may be wrong, but it seems to me that people are going to consider before shaking hands, or hugging someone not in their immediate family.I’d be surprised if we all wore masks at all times outside the house, but I wouldn’t  be surprised to see, say, during flu season, more people that were out wearing masks,

I see more and more interactions between people becoming online. Just last night, I “Skyped” with friends. Two different calls. It was great to see and talk with them, No they weren’t neighbors but I can see that occurring for friends that live across town. But we humans are social animals. We need contact, in person with one another. Whether it’s a birthday party for a child, a barbecue, attending a major sporting event,  or just going out after work with a few colleagues,  we need to have that intimate contact with one another. Let’s not lose that .