Oh the people I'll finally meet!

With apologies to Dr. Seuss (whose star is dimmer due to recent actions to limit his publishing genius, for good reason!), I am beginning to focus on the prospects of eventually meeting face-to-face, in the flesh, many of the wonderful people I have enjoyed zoom or e-format collegial friendship in the past year.

I intend to greet them in my own way, but how?

Will I be repressing handshakes?

Resisting hugs?

Rethinking sitting next to them in a meeting?

Or will I find a middle ground:

• an elbow tap,
• a pat on the back,
• a distanced hearty and sincere “hello, it is SO good to finally meet you!”

Or will handshakes be OK with a dab or hand sanitizer discretely applied?

Or a hug but behind masks, both of us unable to see the broad smiles but evidence of the squint of genuinely happy eyes belying our emotions?

Will we first ask, “have you received all doses of the vaccine?” Will we ask permission to shake, hug, approach, pat?

In other words, what will ever be correct?

I think we need to consider the psychology of both sides of the embrace. I know we need to be accepting if we are rebuffed. I suspect we will get past this discomfort eventually too. I want to be sensitive to the friend.

I’d like to know your thoughts about this topic (in words) not in taps of the emoticon keys, please.