The numbers related to the spread of Covid-19 on these shores seem to be pointing in the right direction. That's no surprise, I suppose, given the sensible range of measures adopted to deal with the pandemic. But I must say, observing the lack of any kind of social distancing in supermarkets here is a salutary reminder of just how unnatural a concept it is. I'm pretty sure people are not deliberately flouting the rules in any way, and you can see the spacing being reasonably observed in the check-out queues. But when it comes to how folk behave in the aisles, it's apparent that the notion that it isn't wise to crowd into your neighbours' immediate space fails to register. It looks to me that the imperative to shop takes over from any other mental mode.
Funnily enough, it's actually fairly easy to maintain the necessary gaps with a modicum of patience. I know that because I find myself walking around as if in one of the exercises I've sometimes used in drama workshops, in which the whole point is to keep moving reasonably quickly in a crowded space whilst maintaining a distance. Awareness of space is an extremely useful faculty to possess when you're on a stage, and it can be developed. But, of course, that's not going to happen in the day-to-day business of life being lived off-stage, as it were.
And maybe the inherent confidence that all will be well such behaviour seems to signal is no bad thing.
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