March 25, 2020 Dispatches from SIP - ZoomTime!

Seems like we are all Zoming now (video conferencing, that is)  - Zoom Yoga, Zoom Poetry Readings, Zoom Koffee Klatches, Zoom Activism,  Zoom Writing and Painting and Parenting and Family Gatherings -- it's all there, somewhere. I could probably be in two or three Zoom sessions a day, if I didn't insist on gardening. We might be maintaining social distance, as in the photo below of a once bustling and busy walking spot in Marin, but we are connecting more than ever. At least digitally.

My friends Micki and Julie have decided to use the term "physical distancing" rather than "social distancing" because their social calendars are all filled up, leaving just enough time between sessions for a snack break or a walk around the block. Or a tussle with the dog.  "Social distancing" sounds so bleak and depressing as if we've been ostracized in that medieval kind of way.  But really, it's the physical distance that's so necessary - that 6 precious feet of protection that the virus can't jump so well.  Isolation is so difficult, it feels like punishment because we crave social closeness, the hand clasp, the touch on the shoulder, the ability to see faces, especially, to look into people's eyes.  We glean a highly nuanced secondary communication from faces, absorbing information unconsciously and this makes video conferencing feel like a fuller communication.

Zooming onward, forward, together.

A friendly cormorant by the Civic Center Lagoon

A socially distant Marin Civic Center Lagoon