{"id":3852,"date":"2020-10-02T08:33:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T13:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=3852"},"modified":"2020-10-02T08:33:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T13:33:53","slug":"the-last-handshake-amidst-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/the-last-handshake-amidst-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Handshake Amidst The Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The last time I shook hands with someone was in early March. A friendly fellow, who occasionally came to the CrossFit Citadel gym, stuck his hand out. I shook it, really before thinking. The coronavirus was already in the news, a faraway threat but rapidly drawing closer. After the handshake, I unobtrusively went into the restroom and washed my hands.<\/p>\n

The last time I hugged someone besides my Beautiful Mystery Companion occurred the next day, when a woman who I hadn\u2019t seen at the gym in months got out of her car the same time I did. She\u2019s what we call a \u201chugger\u201d in East Texas. It was good to see her, but, again, a feeling of disquiet washed over me as we entered the gym. I shook the feeling off and got ready to work out. A few days later, I decided it was not safe for me to go to the gym anymore. After reopening, the owner is making every effort to keep his gym safe, but I simply do not want to put me or my BMC at risk. I don\u2019t plan to return until there is a vaccine, doing workouts at home in the interim. I do miss it.<\/p>\n

As the months have passed with no end to this pandemic in sight, and flu season on the horizon, I wonder what might never return in terms of our customs and habits.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Handshakes, for example. I read a National Geographic<\/em> article written in March. An accompanying photograph of a 9th<\/sup> century B.C. stone relief shows an Assyrian king shaking hands with someone from Babylon \u2014 nearly 3,000 years ago. The writer surmises the handshake originated as a gesture of peace, to show one was unarmed and to ensure the person on the other end of the handshake had nothing up a sleeve. During past times of epidemics, such as the 1918 flu pandemic, medical experts warned \u2014 as they do now \u2014 against both handshakes and the French custom of a peck on both cheeks, known as la bise<\/em>. I never took up the latter habit, never wanted to.<\/p>\n

Since I spent much of my adult life largely in the public eye, I shook a lot of hands over the decades \u2014 at Rotary meetings, chambers of commerce, dealing with folks at the various newspapers at which I worked. I learned the tactic of getting in the first grip to keep from getting my hand crushed by an overenthusiastic hand shaker. But hand-shaking was a practice I only tolerated. I far preferred the fist bump common in gyms. It is less obtrusive and doesn\u2019t leave one with a palm moistened with someone else\u2019s sweat.<\/p>\n

When this pandemic passes, it is fine with me if the handshake does not return. My preference for greetings is the wai<\/em>, practiced in Thailand and elsewhere: a slight bow with one\u2019s palms pressed together as if saying a prayer.<\/p>\n

Further, I have gotten so used to wearing a mask during my rare trips to stores (curbside is still our preference), that I am not sure I\u2019ll ever feel comfortable going in a store without wearing a mask. I know some folks will scoff, and some never wear masks \u2014 even when required. That is their benighted choice. I just avoid these folks like the plague, pun intended.<\/p>\n

Citizens in East Asian countries, such as Japan, have been wearing masks in public for decades. It is almost certainly not a coincidence that the death rate from COVID-19 in Japan is one-fiftieth <\/em>the rate in the United States. The number of total cases per million people in Japan is less than 3 percent the total per million in the United States. That is according to the coronavirus dashboard I follow. (https:\/\/ncov2019.live\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n

|\u2014\u2014\u2014|<\/p>\n

Self-serve buffets are likely going to go away forever. Restaurants that once allowed customers to heap portions of General Tso\u2019s chicken and fried rice on their plates, followed by another patron handling the same pair of tongs, now have employees parcel out portions. That is more labor intensive but both safer and likely cuts down on food waste. I have never been a fan of buffets, so this has no effect on me. My late parents would be in mourning. My dad in particular loved the long-gone Ryan\u2019s and Golden Corral. When in town, I would politely accompany them but haven\u2019t been back, nor do I plan to.<\/p>\n

Then there is flying on airplanes, attending concerts or athletic events, or going to the movies. Again, these are personal choices we all will have to make when things return to \u201cnormal.\u201d<\/p>\n

If normal ever truly returns.<\/p>\n

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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