The Camaraderie of Strangers

Yesterday while out for a walk, I think we can do that free from social shaming, I saw a man standing by his pickup truck doing a pretty good job of singing Happy Birthday. I was pretty sure he wasn't washing his hands and had this affirmed when I noticed his partner crossing the street to put flowers in a mail box. The squeals of delight from the porch rounded out the picture. In the DBCV (Days before Corono Virus) I would not have been invited.

Today I realized, starved as we are for real as opposed to electronic connectivity, strangers reach out to make contact or welcome a little social, albeit superficial, contact while respectfully keeping there distance. "How is it going?" ..." So far so good" is popular as is "pretty much like yesterday" and simply "we are OK", all coming from people that might normally pass by silently. I say normally with some hesitation. I live in a small town where folks are generally pretty friendly. Just a bit more so now.