The recommended precautions and health protocols for dealing with the coronavirus require us to focus on ourselves, as individuals – wash your hands, don’t touch your face, cough in the flex of an elbow, social distance 3-6 feet from each other, and wear a mask.
While these protocols make us focus on our own personal health, they can also make us less aware of the unvoiced feelings and emotional health of persons with whom we do interact, including our family members – from a distance and behind a mask.
I must pause here to commend the many persons moving throughout Anguilla – walking, driving, congregating, shopping, working – who are adhering to the health protocols, in place, for dealing with the coronavirus. It makes me feel somewhat reassured about my own level of exposure to the virus. And yet, I have a heightened sense of concern for us as a community of social, human beings.
When we greet another person, we normally make eye contact, exchange glances, or exchange words of acknowledgment and oral expressions of joy or sadness.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, health protocols have altered our social interactions, and while we still meet and greet each other, we seldom have the luxury of viewing each other’s face and seeing the emotions behind the interactions. Consequently, we are often left with “unfinished portraits” of our encounters.
The new normal however – where faces are concealed by masks – has afforded us a new opportunity to really “hear” what persons are saying when we interact with them. We are now forced to look into each other’s eyes – sometimes filled with warmth, other times with tears – and really “see” the excitement, joy, tenderness, love, disdain, hate, fear, hurt and sadness are sheltered within. And for the first time, in a long time, as human beings, we are really “seeing and hearing” one another.
