Diving into Solitude
NO MAN IS AN ISLAND, wrote a solemn John Donne 400 years ago, to remind us all of our interconnectedness, to highlight our predominantly social selves, to urge us to pay cognisance to the fact that our pain is shared, that we rely on companionship and the comfort of others, that loss resonates, that happiness spreads. And so too, we are ruthlessly reminded today, does a virus. And to this microscopic virus—less than a millionth of a metre long—we must give two metres of space. We must lock ourselves in our homes, stay off the streets, stay out of
