So sad that our world has become an even less personal, friendly place. I've worked in the sport fishing tackle industry most of my life. There are huge annual shows just for the industry every summer, plus all the consumer trade shows that many of us do, either in our part of the country or nationwide. Although there are a few major companies, even they're small compared to the "normal" world, and most tackle companies are Mom 'n Pop operations. Used to be that attending a show was just one hug after another as we saw people we didn't ordinarily see except once or very few times each year. The "Me Too" movement put an end to public hugging, took away the one bright spot of those shows, with their long hours and the same questions repeated over and over.

Now, we're learning to be distant from each other, no personal contact whatsoever, using electronic devices to avoid face-to-face meetings. We're learning to order things delivered, delivered without any personal contact. I don't think that this is going to lead to a kinder and gentler world for our future! While it's great that many stores have now put up plastic barriers to separate the store people from customers, they'll stay in place and become the norm, further depersonalizing our daily lives into the future. And, even though the barriers are better than masks for those of us who rely on lip reading, they further suppress what little useful sound we receive. We are most surely losing our humanity, becoming more and more dependent upon devices, far less aware of other people, their unique values, personalities, needs--and what we have gained from those relationships in the past.