My generation has seen more change than any other.

A Roller-coaster Rodeo.

If you were born in a world that had TV, computers, or smart phones, you are not in that generation.

The whole lot in the name of progress, since the war was over.

Has it all been good? Have all effects been healthy? We are still figuring it out.

Even the good stuff comes at a price. TV definitely a good idea, but demands total attention, and if you watch too much TV other things get neglected, like exercise and fresh air. I don't count watching your phone screen as TV.

We get to spend more time with the machines and toys we make than with other people, in some cases, perhaps many.

Inventions like the automobile are intrinsically social, from the moment they have more than one seat, but computer-derived devices like video games and smart phones use are intrinsically solitary.

Nothing wrong with being alone, but unless you are downright untypical or insane you need to connect with other people in some degree in life.

Enter Covid-19, and the extended isolation from each other that has become necessary and has added enormously to the problem.

The strain is visible. People don't even look at each other when randomly meeting in the street or a shop. I change sides in a street when others walk towards me, but I try to connect with them and greet them in some way, and it feels good if they reply
in kind.

Since now I've learned to modulate my voice behind an N95 mask, I see that if you talk to someone, as if things were normal, they gladly oblige, gladder than before, which I find mighty reassuring, though far from alone.

At the butchers....

<to another guy looking at the same meat..>

"Wow, I wonder how long that tomahawk rib takes to cook."

"Well, it depends on the temperature."

"Yeah, maybe you can barbecue it like ribs, with charcoal in only half the grill and a foil tent with water in the other half, for a couple of hours."

"Sounds good."

"Bye"

"Take care."

Now if the shopper, walker, cyclist, or skater you talk to, you happen to fancy...

When she says something like...

"It's a miracle that we have a vaccine available." You give it a try.

"I don't see God within miles of this, BUT if you slept with me tonight, I bet I could change my mind in a hurry."

"Oh. You would."

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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