Hello All,

We are living in extraordinary times, times that no one in history has ever lived through and it dawned on me that the timing of this virus is very interesting. At any other time in the past, had a pandemic like this hit the world stage, and lockdown procedures were put in place, we would have all been totally cut off from each other, with no way to see each other or communicate.

Imagine the world pre-1879, before electricity or 1830 before the advent of communications, less than 200 short years ago, and what day to day life looked like. People walked in the streets and greeted each other, they sincerely inquired as to one another’s wellbeing. The concept of networking in business was done face to face, speaking and interacting with each other. With no online ordering, or conferencing capabilities available, had this core capability of real communication been removed, businesses might cease to function, and people might seriously go mad.

I heard someone say that their grandparents had met online, when I thought about their ages, I immediately said, “online”?! There was no “online” eighty to hundred years ago, at which point he laughed and said, online- waiting to buy stamps at the post-office!

We live in a world where we are immersed in our own technology bubbles, a world where we interact with others less with each passing day. We walk around with our headsets on listening to music, the news or whatever else takes our fancy. Children who used to occupy themselves outdoors playing a sports game are facing childhood obesity due to their inactivity; two and three-year olds know how to keep themselves occupied on a tablet or phone for hours on end. We were losing the ability to have real relationships and communicate, as human beings we need this for our very survival.

If there is a silver lining in the pandemic, I would say that it must be that it has forced people to reconnect. People have been holed up in their houses and are finally desperate to speak to one another! It took a pandemic and a little help from technology like Teams to wake us up, to make us take our AirPods out and actually want to have meetings with our webcams on to see someone else.

I heard someone say that they cannot wait to get back to the way things used to be, I wholeheartedly disagree! I am very happy with what Corona has taught me and hope that we all use this time at home as an opportunity to keep reaching out, keep calling on our friends and family so that even after the pandemic has been eradicated, the world is truly a better place.

Aaron