We can do without so much – but not the human touch

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

Who’d have thought we’d miss a hug so much? Who would have believed that not being able to shake hands with someone you’ve known all your life could prove so soul-destroying when in reality there is so much more to worry about?

Like everything else, it’s only when the chance is gone – albeit just for now – that you realise how much you loved it, and how bereft you are for its suspension.

That simple gesture, a hand on the shoulder, a touch on the elbow…a little acknowledgement of how happy you are just to casually bump into someone on the street.

But the streets these days are very different places, and the bobble of heads all the way down Shop Street has been replaced by the tumbleweed of a ghost town.

And rightly so, because everything to do with this awful virus is about keeping your distance; in the long run that’s our best chance of keeping down the numbers who become infected or seriously ill, and thus we ensure the maximum make it through this trauma and out the other side.

But it doesn’t mean that it isn’t utterly heart-breaking to see our own town – like every other city, town and village – reduced to a shadow of glorious itself.

Even in the protected space of our own homes, nothing is as it used to be; family members keep their distance for all the right reasons, just so they’re safe and they keep us safe too.

Hopefully there will be any number of things we will appreciate like never before when all of this is over – our health, our life, our families, our work, our charmed existence.

But we’ll also cherish the simple gesture of outstretched arms that welcome you into an embrace; a firm handshake that lets you know your friend is delighted to see you; that easy way of stopping for a chat on the street as you encounter someone you know.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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