Musings on Time and Human Interaction

I remember turning on the Brewers game one day in the summer of 2020 and seeing a stadium full of fake fans in the stands: cardboard cutouts of real fans who paid for their picture to be displayed in the stadium. The year 2020 was a year of many firsts. Among them, a year of isolation. We don't usually see what we take for granted until it's taken from us, and that's what it felt like that year. It felt like our right to be with other human beings was taken. Instead of enjoying each other's company, we had to stay in and wait out something that doesn't have a sense of time. How can we, human beings, wait out a virus that doesn't know the difference between eight weeks and eight years? I oftentimes think about the topic of time. It's a concept that has been gradually more and more implemented in daily life: one day, when I have more time, I will do this; you have x amount of time to take an exam; time is money. Jail is expressed in an amount of time spent. We value meetings and classes and work in the amount of time it takes up. This, I think, is part of the reason why the coronavirus has shaken us. What we originally thought of as taking a number of months out of our lives is now coming up on three years. How do you fight an enemy that has no concept of time when everything we do is based around it?

As it is, we live in the age of technology and can stay in touch even more, albeit virtually, than we could ten years ago. For weeks throughout the lockdown, every Sunday, my Dad's side of the family would all hop on a Zoom call and catch up with each other. We'd share the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, and we'd be there, on the screen, to make sure no one was hurting too bad. If we can stay connected through technology, without skipping a beat, why is it, though, that we lose touch with so many friends we've made throughout the years?

I think back to my time in elementary school, middle school, high school, summer camps, the first four years of college, and, in each stage, there are a handful of individuals who are responsible for helping me cross each finish line. But over the years does life truly get in the way, or do we just grow apart after each stage? If life is a series of setbacks and accomplishments, and if there are people who are truly responsible for getting us past those hurdles and achieving those accomplishments, wouldn't they be worth the tie to stay in touch with? I believe this is the case, yet I still struggle with reaching out.

We need to take time to do so, though. In every new chapter of our lives, we seem to gain new friends and drop old ones. We'd be hard pressed to find anyone throughout history who did something extraordinary without the help of others, so we pick up new friends along the way. Presidents have a cabinet and advisors, and of course, lean on family throughout the process. The whole idea of therapy is based around human interaction. Talking to a trained professional about your problems would not even exist if you take the personal aspect out of it. Just talking about your problems with another human being can make things seem much more doable. Cross country, a relatively solo sport, lets family and friends cheer on the runners during a race, and, from my seven years of cross country experience, there is nothing like the sensation of being cheered on at the final stint of a race.

If there's one thing the addition to the MLB 2020 season tells us, it's the necessity of human interaction. They included both fake fans in the stands and a fake cheering system heard throughout the entire stadium. This was an addition to the season only brought on due to the exclusion of fans to the games, and it improved the viewing experience for television watchers and radio listeners alike, along with adding a bit more "normalcy" for the players. The power of human interaction, even if it is prerecorded, symbolic or virtual, cannot be overstated, and living in this age of technology gives us the necessary tools to do so even during extreme disruptions, such as Covid. If we can... imagine what we'd be able to do during a normal period not disrupted by a pandemic. I can't remember a time where I felt better brooding things over by myself rather than facing things with those I love being around. It's time we make time to be with others, whatever that may look like.