Social Distancing As Normalcy

I MISS the packed, roaring stadiums, the dull drone of a baseball crowd, as I suspect I may soon miss the thunderous explosions of football. A retired walks into a crowded airport and boards a crowded jet liner. They land at another crowded airport, check in at a crowded hotel,, have lunch in a crowded restaurant. The bus is full as they head to the port, which is crowded with people boarding a crowded cruise ship. The ports of call are all crowded, as are the tour buses, mostly with elderly retirees. Will this scenario ever happen again, or will we forever hunker down in our houses, dashing to the grocery store once a week, wearing face masks? A bit more microbiological research will tell us the genetic sequencing of the protein part of the virus which infects the cell, and we will know how to trigger the human immune response. Beyond that there is no magic medicine, no chemical to attack and destroy every copy of every virus. There is only the minor matter of microscopically motivating myself,ourselves. lacking that I am resigned to living out my life in the isolation of social distancing. I have found it to be a lifestyle with which I am completely compatible,lacking only a few roaring stadiums and booming concert halls. I find it to be a lifestyle I have practiced since early childhood, when I preferred to be alone in diapers, with my toys, and no one else around. Crowded classrooms hindered my love of learning, for which I compensated on my own, in my books, in solitary confinement. I don't go to restaurants merely to eat or watch games. In large measure I go to watch teh crowds, to glance furtively at the folks between bites and pitches, wo wonder about their lives, and what might have happened had I met them in other circumstances. I stay by myself, decade after decade, in social isolation, but paying close attention, like some alien from another world.