Socially Distant Hug

The socially distant hug is the thing I’m here for. At last, a way to show you care about someone from 2 meters away without touching. Perfect! I’m quite excited by it. Except that’s not what people mean.

Not me but how I feel if someone tries to hug me

We live in a very public world. Some of that is of our own making. We take photos and upload them to social media platforms, blog or vlog. If you are already known then people will take photos of you and upload them. This creates more judgement than would normally happen.

If you were on a zoom call with your mates with your wife and new baby and thought you looked cute, took a picture and uploaded it to Twitter then everyone could comment that the baby looked too big or that you didn’t look like a properly attentive father. People might suggest that the photo was doctored in some way because you couldn’t possibly be that happy.

If you went out for a Sunday morning stroll without a dog, wearing a shirt you hadn’t buttoned up properly, baggy trousers, trainers and a floppy hat with a large stick and tennis balls in your pocket then someone would take a photo and wonder if you were off for an eye test.

Dominic Cummings

As if these weird times aren’t hard enough, our every movement is being judged. And, again, those judgements split into two. You’re a masker or an anti-masker, you are left or right, you believe in a second wave or think it’s all a plot to control you. There doesn’t seem to be any room for the middle ground, where, if we weren’t so busy judging each other, we would realise that most of live.

This has lead to the rise of a new saying. It might even be a hashtag. #SociallyDistantOfCourse. This is where people do things that they think might be breaking the rules (although they’re not sure because the opticians are too busy to properly get an eye test) and say, “socially distant, of course,” to make themselves feel better.
“You can do anything you want now, so long as you say ‘socially distant, of course’” said the man in the cemetery to someone who was also grieving.
She looked at him, her eyes filled with tears and she mouthed the word hug.
It would have been cruel not to so he wrapped her in his huge arms and said, “Socially distant hug!”