On a sweltering summer day in Newcastle, I was trudging through a park alone. Why you ask? Well in an addition to my growing list of car mishaps I had punctured my tyre on the highway, and was in the middle of the painful wait while I waited for my ride to be ready.

“Hey how are you going?” I turned around expecting to see a chance run in with a friend but instead found a total stranger- a tall gentleman, dark hair and a welcoming smile. Hold your horses, this is not another romantic short story! We did however have a great chat as I eventually made it back to the vicinity of Kmart Auto. His name was…something Irish…Ciarran? No that’s the Bachelor in Paradise…character. Instead of his name, what stayed with me was his story- with no set home yet in Australia he was bouncing around trying to help people. At that point in time he was volunteering in a shelter for the homeless and couch-surfing, or so he claimed, but what’s the value in questioning? At the end of our chat, I shook…Ciarran’s…hand, we wished each other good luck for the future and went our separate ways forever.

What was the point of that tale? I met a random guy, can’t remember his name, and am not even completely sure his wonderfully selfless story was entirely true. But that interaction- the spontaneous moment which brightened up my otherwise dull day, is a pleasure which I took for granted that is hard to come by nowadays. A conversation with a stranger now is tinged with the suspicion and worry that they may be infected, and as we progress through this, will have to be done through masks- removing the possibility of the welcoming smile that sets the ball rolling.

I’m not questioning the lockdown measures in any sense at all. Obviously to curb a global pandemic, we need to limit our interactions. But it would be amiss I feel to not discuss the social impacts of this disease, and that does not diminish the importance of the health impact- the hundreds of thousands dead worldwide- in doing so.

My worry is whether the fear of interaction becomes the ‘new normal’, even when the virus is finally under control. Will a seven year old who spent their formative years in primary school watching their parents turn their head away from people on the street, be in a position to strike up a conversation at a bus stop in twenty years? Ultimately society will progress as normal. The next generation will still be productive whatever happens, as many businesses can be fully contactless both in payment and interaction if needed. But where is the magic in that?

I have no idea what happened to my Irish friend. Neither do I have any idea what happened to the troubled man who I struck up a conversation walking back to Parramatta Station after he had been kicked out of Centrelink for swearing at the staff. He was frustrated- he was trying his best with a poorly dealt hand and unfortunately sometimes the natural response is anger. We chatted about what’s wrong with society, and like the Irishman, I never saw him again. Did he end up getting a job? Is he happily settled and raising a happy family now? Or did the pent up anger lead him to commit a crime? I will never know, and in that there is the magic. Not knowing the ending doesn’t diminish a treasured moment.

So for now, my eyes are turned towards the American Pharma giants like Pfizer, praying that their brazen confidence that a vaccine will be ready by early 2021 is true. Because for me a one of the core pleasures of humanity is the chance meeting with a stranger never to be seen again, and let that never not be part of a ‘new normal’.