Airplanes were always very important to me. Not that I am pro-climate pollution, but because when I watched them fly high in the sky from my classroom, office, car, or wherever I happened to be, it meant freedom to me. Freedom to choose your destination. Freedom to get into an airplane and just fly wherever you want to go. I always imagined who was sitting in that particular plane, where they came from, where they went, what they did, and so on. I also played a game guessing where this plane was flying to. The adventures they are about to take or already taken. Strangers in a strange land, maybe so long that they weren’t strangers anymore… Maybe that’s why I love airports so much, so many different nations meet there, and it doesn’t matter where you come from or where you go.
Today, it changed.
It seems like everything is about to change and where joy was is now the unknown, fear, and panic.
Friends are afraid the greet each other. Family members who haven’t seen each other for weeks and months are afraid to hug each other. Social distancing. My logical brain understands why we need to do that, but my emotional side doesn’t. My grandparents haven’t seen my wife and me for more than two months. We came back with one of the last airplanes, we’ve self-isolated before we went to my family but still… there, where once has been hugs, kisses, and handshakes, is now a sort-of cold greeting from a distance. My grandparents were afraid to come near to us and it was really painful to witness, see, and feel the pain caused by their and our decision.
I am not here to comment on the decisions by the government but has anybody thought about what this will cause to our social life? Locals in foreign countries are getting aggressive to foreigners, to fellow human beings. Once people loved to connect, they are being forced to disconnect.
Let’s pray and hope this will end soon and people around the world will come together like they never have before.
Sevelen, Switzerland