love in virus times

We live in times of overcoming difficulties in which our capacity for resilience is put to the test every day, in so many ways

Everything has changed since normality was replaced by everyday life in a mask, with no space for face-to-face interaction, where the fear of touch and proximity was installed.

Love has not disappeared, but, like our lives, its physical manifestations have been paused. I'm talking about different types of love. Love between family members, between friends and carnal love.

Family members left the hugs and kisses aside. When they came together in traditional festive seasons, the number of infected soared. The virus conspires against the social animals that we are. The damage that physical distance will cause in society will only be noticeable when we are far from the eye of the storm.

Younger children make observations of what they once could and can't anymore because of Covid — sharing toys or food is now discouraged, when we've always taught little ones to share what they have. A teaching to unlearn…and to relearn one day.

The alternation between virtual and face-to-face school confuses our children, causes them anguish. To adults, too. Sometimes we manage our time in a way, sometimes we need to adapt and start reorganizing domestic tasks with telework and schoolwork. This is for those who have children. For those who live alone, the hardships are different.

Singles' relationships are conditioned. Married relationships too. The installed routine, without space to erase the urgency of homesickness, harms marriages. The deprivation of being "I", having time for myself, and of being "we", despairs.

Of course there are solutions.

For singles, the websites of dating and relationship by affinity or the websites one-night stands without commitment are the alternative to going out at night, to meetings between friends and strangers. In this option, after the virtual phase moves to face-to-face, it may require a Covid test or even worth taking the risk. Or maybe not? The first date cannot be in a restaurant, good food will not be one of the ingredients of seduction. Probably, the option will be to continue online, in the sexting or wait.

Married people need to reinvent themselves, resort to imagination, create surprises within the very same walls. When the workspace mixes with the place for meals and living, the tiredness of the obvious, the lack of novelty, which only vacations, leaving home, dating can resolve, require the couple to make a tremendous effort to achieve keep as such.

We live in times of overcoming difficulties in which our capacity for resilience is put to the test every day, in so many ways. Love in virus times is not easy. It obliges the loving being that we are, a great adaptability. And imagination.

"She had never imagined that curiosity was one of the many masks of love."
- In “Love in the Time of Cholera”, by Gabriel Garcia Márquez

 

 

 
 



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