Words and their meaning

During the pandemic in 2020, when the CDC recommended limiting face-to-face contact to slow the spread of COVID-19, the term "social distancing" became part of our daily vocabulary.

And I've always wondered: why didn't we call it "physical distancing"? Seems like such a small distinction, but language shapes how we interpret our reality, and calling it "social distancing" framed isolation as the solution, not just the logistics.

We weren't being asked to stay physically apart while finding new ways to stay socially connected. We were being told to distance—socially. To pull back. To separate. And I think that made a difference.

The pandemic required physical separation… that was unavoidable, but the language we used didn't make space for the grief of that separation. It didn't acknowledge that humans need social connection to survive—not just physically, but emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.

Instead, we were told to "distance." To stay safe by staying apart.

And when the acute phase passed, we were expected to just... reconnect. To go back to normal. As if two years of enforced separation hadn't fundamentally changed how we relate to each other.

But the grief is still here. The loneliness. The disconnection. The sense that something was lost and never fully restored, and maybe part of that is because we never had language that allowed us to grieve the social loss while managing the physical necessity.

I'm not saying better language would have solved everything and I do think it matters.

If we'd called it "physical distancing," maybe we would have spent more energy figuring out how to stay socially connected despite the physical constraints.

Maybe we would have normalized Zoom dinners and porch visits and driveway conversations as legitimate forms of connection, instead of treating them as poor substitutes for "the real thing."

Maybe we would have acknowledged that isolation is a public health risk too—not just a side effect of safety.

Language shapes what we prioritize. And the language we used prioritized distance over connection.

I'm still noticing the cost of that.