Member-only story
Dec 8, 2020
2020 moment: We never touch each other anymore. A nurse took my vitals yesterday for a routine doctor’s appointment, her hand casually resting on my arm as the blood pressure cuff tightened and loosened. It struck me dumb for an instant, the first time someone outside my immediate family has touched me in months. What used to be so routine — even treasured in rituals of self-care like a manicure or a massage — is so strange and rare these days in our distanced society under pandemic siege.