A contactless world?

Chapter 92

Trick or treating in the COVID-19 world was so strange. Brenda and I bought a very large bag of candy of course, and we turned all the lights on in the house to make it as welcoming as possible, and we got out the guitar and keyboard and were playing some music, a fun and festive ambience for all the kids to come to, but no one came, well except for one kid, who’s parents yelled at him for ringing our doorbell. After about a half hour of this puzzlement, our daughter shows up at our door and exclaims that we are “doing it “ all wrong! You have to sit outside! You have to put the candy in a bowl far away from anyone because of COVID-19, and this is how you have a contactless contact with your trick or treaters.

And so we sat outside freezing for the next hour and half, repeatedly filling the candy bowl, making small talk with a steady troll of people we don’t know, with kids we had never met, but then again, we only moved here a month ago. This this is the new way to connect with people, and I don’t think it is going to be enough. Not enough touching, not enough hugging, not enough talking, not enough skin on skin magic to make us feel fully human and connected. I think we are wired for more than this. 

While I don’t mind giving candy away to children and making polite small talk with strangers, it was a fairly empty event emotionally. It cost me little, gave me nothing, and accomplished zero except for rotting out some kid’s teeth. We can do better than this.