One and a half meters is one and a half meters is one and a half meters

Even for me it was a matter of adjusting, one and a half meters is more than you think. But when I realized that it is a whole lying Adeline minus twenty centimeters, I could imagine it a bit better. I don't want to claim that I have endless legs, but I'm not that small either. And that's why I understand quite a bit of what people don't get at all. Not because of my legs, but because of that one and a half meters distance.

I see a friend cozily shoulder to shoulder with a distant neighbor loading plants from her car, then taking a walk with another neighbor with the dogs, having drinks on the balcony with a friend, and then greeting her father with a big kiss. Her father, who falls into a risk group, you can still see that from across the street. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I have the intensive care doctor on repeat who says that younger people might survive COVID-19, which by the way is not so certain because just look at the numbers, but that it’s about available places in an ICU. That if we continue as we are, there will have to be a choice made between people. Don’t go cycling on Easter, don’t get on the motorcycle on Easter, stay home on Easter. Firstly, because we then spread the virus less quickly, but also because you are less likely to have an accident on a motorcycle at home, which means you won’t need ICU help. If it is even available.

Meanwhile, I hear so much yes-but. The weakest one I’ve heard? ‘Oh, in a few weeks it will be over anyway, so what does it matter?’ I then wonder if I have attributed too much intelligence to the person I thought he or she (I’ll leave that open) had. Another one, you would almost call it a classic: ‘Yes, but people our age only get a mild flu.’ And what about your grandparents, for whom there might be no help if they need it? I hear Rutte proudly say after every weekend that except for a few incidents, everyone did so well. Which is probably true, but can we send a sidenote for all thosejerks less thoughtful people who thought the rules were there to be ignored? Where I completely agree at a high school level, but just not when it comes to human lives.

Youp van ’t Hek wrote in his column this weekend that people asked him if he could subtly ‘clear his throat’ at someone with his crystal clear corona. I don’t want to go that far (Youp doesn’t either), but I hereby nominate it as word of the year.

The faster we try to contain that corona-COVID-19 bastard, the faster we lose fewer loved ones, the faster my friend can run her restaurant again, the faster the nurse in the ICU has a weekend off, the faster we might be able to sit on a terrace at one and a half meters, the faster children can go back to school. Maybe every other day, maybe in shifts, maybe at a distance, but as the Italians say: we keep our distance now, so we can hold each other tightly later. God, how I miss that.

If you could use some one and a half meter suggestions, this will help you.