2020 Love

Whilst talking to a friend it cropped up.

Will love have a new face post pandemic? What will it look like for the singles out there?

Coincidentally recently I wrote on how I felt 'virtual love' had replaced organic emotions. Then I had that conversation and it took me to another question.

In a world where connecting through online dating sites and mobile apps is already hard how has this pandemic affected love? In our present 'infected' world I believe it is still hard in a completely different way.

In the past although we were connecting virtually there was still a semblance of old fashion 'courting'. Now we're encouraged to keep our distance.

So what face does love have now? Is it a new face? Is it the same as always but without the mask? Without makeup?

We're the complete opposite of the swinging 60s. We're a mass of masked, gloved individuals suspicious of anyone coming close to us.

Rather than just ask possible partners if they've been tested for STD's we may add whether a vaccination has been administered. What's their temperature? Step away at the first cough.

Will hand sanitizers become the new chocolate? Will disinfectant be the new fragrance? Ok. I'm exaggerating there but there's still a sense of 'clinical love'. Disinfected love. Cold in its calculations. Wary from the start.

In the past dates usually impacted only those two individuals gambling for a shared future. Now it could possibly mean endangering your friends and family.

I've always been a person that loved kisses and hugs. Being brought up in a culture that greets people with both of these, my body forgets what my mind remembers. It's a constant awkward internal battle.

Years of habitual greetings through kisses reined in to a wave or an air kiss and hugs to a respectable distance. I feel weird. Like I'm doing something abnormal. My way of communicating has been partly stripped. A sense of disconnection through this enforced distance is always present. Put in that equation faces partially covered and that feeling is then multiplied.

That's just for a greeting. How do you welcome love under those circumstances? Are you with that person due to the current unprecedented times? Would that person be chosen pre pandemic? Were choices made through loneliness, boredom or fear?

Will the face of love change again when things return to a 'new' normal?

I miss the simplest things I used to take for granted. Simpler they are the more I hope for them to return in the future.