Keep Your Distance!

Do you ever avoid anything that causes you to feel uncomfortable? Of course you do. We all do.

Well, I hate to break it you, like social distancing, love itself can sometimes feel uncomfortable. It is more than a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Love others anyway, whether it makes you feel good or not.

Social Distancing While Running

For fitness and goal setting, I like to run long distance. Even during the pandemic of 2020-21, with its enforced isolation, I still made time to get out and put in some kilometres. And, no, this was not against the national nor state restrictions! Sheesh.

Anyway, when I was running during the pandemic, I began watching how people managed social distancing while walking or running along my local paths.

What I found especially interesting was my reaction to other people avoiding me. As I approached people coming toward me, some moved aside to keep the required distance between us. Others gave me a wide berth, even stepping off the paved pathway to walk on the grass as I passed. In those instances I felt offended. “What’s wrong with me that they should avoid me so?” I thought to myself.

Then I remembered the restrictions and understood they were actually protecting themselves and me by keeping their distance. Not to mention they were obeying the law, but that is to give their behaviour a negative taint. From a more positive perspective, it was actually altruistic for them to risk walking in water and mud, by stepping out on the grass, to keep us both from catching the virus from one another. In other words, they loved me by making themselves uncomfortable.

Social Distancing Was an Uncomfortable but Easy Practice

There’s no denying the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic made everyone uncomfortable. No one benefitted from it, except maybe the face mask and hand sanitiser companies 😛

The practice of social distancing was one of the easiest and most effective preventative measures we could all adopt. To not practice social distancing was putting yourself and others in danger. There were reports of public hotels and bars across the U.S. filled with patrons actively bragging about not abiding by the enforced isolation. Here in Australia, backpackers in Bondi-area hostels were the most egregious example of those flouting the rules, in my opinion.

Not social distancing was dangerous because, it turns out, we could be infected with the virus yet not show any symptoms. Therefore, we could infect others without even knowing we were ourselves infected. This was not okay. People of all ages were getting infected, but most at-risk were those in the senior age brackets. While most runners and walkers on my local paths are younger, like myself, some are elderly trying their best to keep fit. I would hate to think I was the source of their infection and a possible cause of their pain, suffering, and even death.

An Act of Altruism

Jason Farley, a nurse practitioner for the Division of Infectious Diseases AIDS Service at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, told a Mashable journalist, “Social distancing is based on the principle of altruism. Treating everyone around you like it’s [sic] your 80-year-old grandmother is the circumstance we need to think about.”¹

In that same article, Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine, noted, “Social distancing goes a long way to prevent the rapid spread of the virus.” Suzanne Willard, a global health expert at Rutgers School of Nursing, added her voice by agreeing, “Social distancing is one of the most effective tools.”

We would do everything we can to protect our loved ones, correct? Our family and our friends, maybe even our neighbours. Social distancing was uncomfortable. I was repeatedly unsure of how to greet a colleague or end a conversation, where a handshake would be normally appropriate. But, to not do such things, was an altruistic act, a sign of care and concern for those around me —in other words, love— whether I knew them or not.

A great demonstration of altruism was reported by The Guardian. Apparently, more than 500,00 people volunteered to support the U.K’s National Health Service when the call to help vulnerable people was sent out by the government.² These people self-sacrificially put their time and energy into supporting those told to remain in their homes during the crisis. According to the article’s author, “People can join the scheme in four different roles, including as a community response volunteer, which involves ‘collecting shopping, medication or other essential supplies for someone who is self-isolating, and delivering these supplies to their home’”.

To practice social distancing and support others unable to leave their homes during this crisis both made us all uncomfortable. On one hand, we were unable to practice the social niceties that have sustained interpersonal dynamics since time immemorial; on the other, we were spending our time on mundane tasks on behalf of others. Love can be uncomfortable, for a variety of reasons, but these are both actions that show one’s care and concern for others.

I, for one, applaud those who avoided me as much as those who gave up their time. May we all learn from their example.

Now that the pandemic is other many of us are still struggling to overcome the social distancing we practiced. It makes us uncomfortable to practice the social conventions of a handshake or a hug, to draw close to other people. The lesson from the pandemic is to love even when it is uncomfortable. And practice makes perfect 😁

1. Mark Kaufman, “Americans Are Hitting Bars And Bragging About Not Social Distancing”, Mashable, 15-Mar-2020, https://bit.ly/3fBVZxD (accessed 11-May-2020).
2. Simon Murphy, “More Than 500,000 People Sign Up To Be Nhs Volunteers”, The Guardian, 26-Mar-2020, https://bit.ly/2xQghm4 (accessed 11-May-2020).