Do you recall there was a time when we were close?
Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a land where people stood next to each other all the time. Sometimes they hugged each other, and sometimes they said excuse me, either because they burped or were trying to get past that person in the aisle of the movie theater.
Sometimes they would ride the bus, and a stinky person would sit next to them. They would just try to move their body as far away as they could while sitting next to that person on the bus. Other times they would just get up and hold the strap or the pole on the bus and just stand next to somebody else who didn’t smell quite as bad.
Every once in a while, either coming out of the grocery store or going into it, someone would ask if you would like their cart, and you would say sure and not think twice.
In this land, people visited each other at someone’s house or in a restaurant or bar. You sat right next to each other on the couch, at a table or on a stool. Sometimes there weren’t enough stools and you just crammed in all together next to the bar. Sometimes people forgot their manners and double dipped their chips in the salsa, but pretended like they hadn’t and no one got terribly sick when they did.
In this far away land, sometimes people had dirty hands. They really intended to wash them, but had totally forgotten. And then when they were in a meeting in their department, they hid their hands under the desk or curled their fingers so no one could see their nails.
In this land, people had their hair done, wore make up and combed their hair. They made sure when they went somewhere there wasn’t a ton of dog hair on their clothes and brushed it off with a lint brush before they left the house. Otherwise people would crinkle their nose at them and raise their brows in disapproval.
In this land, people leisurely shopped for groceries or clothes because they all had jobs, or at least most of them did, and even if they didn’t get paid a tremendous amount of money, they still had a job. People actually went to the grocery store and bought their own food. They would pick up melons and smell them or press into avocados to make sure they were not too ripe or too hard. If they were, they put them back down rather than buying them and regretting their purchase. If they were religious they went to church or mosque or temple, and if someone got married or died or had a baby, you were there either to celebrate or grieve.
One time a long time ago, people stood next to each other all the time.