When I posted 7 weeks ago there were about 200 cases of Covid-19 and 1 known death in the US. Now there are 1,000,000 and 54,000 deaths. This is not the place to go into the political and economic things that are happening, but it’s fair to say this will be an unprecedented piece of world history. The part of it that interests me the most is the long term effect of “social distancing” and “shelter-in-place”.
I am a single, middle aged man living in a rural area with a job, a dog, a bunch of snakes and no real family or friends. All my non-work activities are done solo except when I go to town once per week for groceries. I make fewer than a dozen trips per year to any city large enough to have a movie theater. While I do spend a lot of time outdoors I live in a place where that’s possible while avoiding interacting directly with most other people.
For the last 7 weeks, millions of Americans have been forced into a lifestyle very much like this and I’m interested to know how many of them are enjoying it (aside from the no-work-no-paycheck thing which sucks no matter who you are). I am interested to see how many people change their socializing habits when this is over. How many people will move back to the country (if they’re able) or at least out of dense urban and suburban areas. How many will spend more time learning about and working with things they love rather than just trying to fit in to some social group.
I know that socializing is an important part of human development and well-being but I honestly think we’ve turned most of it into a pointless game that stops people from thinking and learning about things that other people might judge harshly. It’s easier to just agree with the group and it is more often rewarded than standing apart.
Anyway, I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Here’s some snake pics
A pair of my 2018’s
Another couple of my 2018’s
This last one is a local rat snake I found yesterday. He decided to play ball python. I thought that was neat.