Walk in the Park

The Memorial day weekend afforded me some courage to venture out and about in the prevailing coronavirus situation. It was to do with the weather and the fact that the numbers in the state of Illinois were going in the right direction.

These days company is not a question when it comes to doing things. The Mrs is seldom amenable however the little one just doesn’t have a choice. So each evening I bundle him up in the stroller and the two of us set out to the park which is a block away from us.

I must admit that in the initial days it did feel weird. You see that for past 2 months the only time I had been out was to pickup grocery and that too at intervals of 2 weeks. The very first thing which caught my eye (and rightly so) was the signboard proclaiming - “Please ensure 6 ‘ social distance. Enjoy your walk“. Subconsciously I drew a circle around me with a radius of 6 ‘ and started devising ways of how I would make it through this without anyone violating ‘my space’.

As I started my stroll I observed that the other folks walking around also had their own ‘circles’ in place and lo and behold each one of us was part of this ‘Avoid the circle’ game. Vision - of what lies ahead with respect to the people or ‘circles’ coming your way and Trust - that the people will not make abrupt changes in their paths seemed to be attributes to get out unscathed. Guided by these I , together with a handful of other folks who found themselves in the park at that time continued to navigate the path.

The one thing that struck me in all this was in the melee of ‘social distancing’, we were too busy to acknowledge each other. Whatever little comfort the quick meeting of the eyes or the quick nod of the head would afford was most definitely lost. However, as the days have passed, I seemed to have fallen into a routine and believe it or not have been mostly seeing the same people in the park at the time when I roll in. I can sense that our confidence in each other has grown and though trying to keep our ‘circles’ apart some of us have also started to acknowledge each other. 

I am aware that its going to take a lot more than a ‘Walk in the Park’ to get things to normal but hey its a start, won’t you agree?