Covid Diaries: Genuinely Altered Behavior?

Since spring is upon us, we've been doing a LOT of yard work, recently.

Earlier today, I loaded up the truck with a large pile of brush, branches, nettles, blackberry vines and other things we just wanted to get off property. Then I hauled it all to our local waste dump... which has a large "garden debris" area where they gradually turn people's yard waste into mulch, over a period of about 3 years.

Anyway, I have been on many dump runs in the past, so I'm pretty familiar with the whole routine.

To make it easier to unload (and to keep the back of our pickup truck some semblance of clean), I always put my clippings on a large strong tarp... that way I can just pull the tarp out (with load) rather than having to unload with a shovel or pitchfork.

A little after I'd arrived and started pulling on my tarp (pretty heavy; it was about a 700lb load) a man unloaded next to me asked me if I wanted help.

Whereas he did end up helping me, I also noticed an interesting "response" inside... after some 60-odd days under a "shelter in place" order, it felt "strange" to not only have someone talk to me, in a public space... but it felt "strange" to have someone volunteering to get close enough when we're all "supposed to" be social distancing.

I thanked the man, after we'd unloaded, in a matter of seconds... but not until I'd done a small "stutter step" and initially responded with a rather long "Uhmmmm...."

As I drove away, I started wondering about the ways so many people's normal behaviors are likely to have changed, by the time we start easing the restrictions on movement and behavior. This was the first time I had noticed it in myself, at a more rote level than just remembering to distance and wear a mask in public. This was a real sign that my underlying habits had changed, along with my expectations of people's behaviors.

It also made me wonder how the world will feel different, when we're no longer worried about infections. Will we eye people more with suspicion, than we did before? Will the world have been permanently changed, of will we gradually slid back towards How things were, before we knew of this thing called "Covid-19?"

Moreover, will we be better off as a result, or will it be more like we have lost something?

Thanks for reading, and stay healthy, out there!

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Created at 20200508 15:41 PDT
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