Distancing

Kantor focuses on a misunderstood but common condition that brings severe and pervasive anxiety about social contacts and relationships. He offers psychotherapists a specific method for helping avoidants overcome their fear of closeness and commitments, and offers a guide for avoidants themselves to use for developing lasting, intimate, anxiety-free relationships. Fear of intimacy and commitment keeps avoidants from forming close, meaningful relationships. Types of avoidants can include confirmed bachelors, femme fatales, and people who form what appear to be solid relationships only to tire of them and leave with little warning, often devastating their partners/victims. Kantor takes us through the history of this disorder, and into clinical treatment rooms, to see and hear how avoidants think, feel, and recover. He offers psychotherapists a specific method for helping avoidants overcome their fear of closeness and commitments, and offers a guide for avoidants themselves to use for developing lasting, intimate, anxiety-free relationships. The avoidance reduction techniques presented in this book recognize that avoidants not only fear criticism and humiliation, but also fear being flooded by their feelings and being depleted if they express them. Acceptance is feared as much as rejection, because avoidants fear compromising their identity and losing personal freedom. Kantor describes the different therapeutic emphasis required for the four types of avoidants, including those who are withdrawn due to shyness and social phobia, such as people who intensely fear public speaking; those who relate easily, widely, and well, but cannot sustain relationships due to fear of closeness; those whose restlessness causes them to leave steady relationships, often without warning; and those who grow dependent on—and merge with—a single lover or family member and avoid relating to anyone else.

Social distancing is a term used for such measures that Health authorities take to discourage or delay the spread of a highly infectious disease. The Health Official has the legislative power to introduce steps to isolate society as these initiatives would have a direct effect on our society. Any effort to implement social distancing initiatives must be orchestrated with local authorities such as communities, police forces, and education centers, as well as with state and federal stakeholders. The statutory health bodies are responsible for collecting information on social distancing to physically separate the public from society. This knowledge is provided to help people understand what might be expected to do if social distancing strategies are put into action by the Health Advisor. What are the steps to separate people from society? Social distancing measures are taken to limit when and where the spread of communicable diseases can be prevented or decelerated.

Are you ready to live in a world without handshakes or hugs from anyone outside your home? What about "going to school" via your laptop in your living room? Are you taking your dance class on an iPad? These are just some of the adjustments people have had to make in trying to stop the spread of COVID-19. But what are the best ways to enjoy our lives and interact with friends without socializing in person? Readers will explore how our social lives have changed since COVID-19 began, and how some of these changes may be around for a while.

The health and economic consequences of COVID-19 are closely tied to individual compliance with recommended protective behaviors. We examine the determinants of this compliance using survey data from the COVID Behavior Tracker for 29 advanced and emerging market economies between March and December 2020. Social distancing behaviors vary significantly by age, gender, occupation, and individual beliefs about COVID-19. In addition, those who trust their government’s response to COVID-19 are significantly more likely to adopt recommended behaviors and to self-isolate if advised, highlighting the need for well-coordinated actions on the health and economic fronts. We also find that mobility restrictions, such as stay-at-home orders, and mask mandates are associated with reduced social interactions and persistent increases in compliance. Together, these drivers account for over two-thirds of the regional differences in compliance, confirming their important role in increasing social distancing and containing the pandemic.

Nadia Anwar analyzes selected post-independence Nigerian dramas using the conceptual framework of metatheatre, a theatrical strategy that foregrounds the process of play-making by breaking the dramatic illusion. She argues that distancing, as a function of metatheatre, creates a balanced theatrical experience and environment in terms of the emotive and cognitive levels of reception of a particular performance. Anwar's book is the first in-depth study to apply the concept of metatheatre to Nigerian drama. She brings the perspectives of Bertolt Brecht, Thomas J. Scheff, and other theoreticians of dramatic distancing to the analysis of plays by authors such as Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Femi Osofisan, Esiaba Irobi, and Stella ‘Dia Oyedepo.

Just as a sacred relic isn’t inherently sacred, and your special dishes aren’t inherently special, the techniques of poetry are not poetry. They are but a means to an end. Calling a piece of writing poetry is like putting your favorite salamander on the Endangered Species List, or getting UNESCO to declare all of your favorite places World Heritage Sites. Poetry is what we do to words when we want to make them holy again. Poetic language is the spirit that moved across the face of the waters; it is language with the talismanic power to illuminate the world around us. This makes it as essential as a face-mask at the moment, and as useful as hand-sanitizer. For it is in the darkest hours that we find ourselves most desperately in need of illumination. We’re all here today because of mistakes we didn’t pay for. We’ve all dodged a thousand bullets to get to where we are today. And if we’re around after this coronavirus pandemic has run its course, it’ll be because we dodged dozens more. Much as I’d like to, I just can’t bring myself to believe that life (or “the Universe”) is nearly as fair as the Law of Karma suggests. All to the contrary, I think the world we live in is a profoundly unfair place, replete with randomness. The great English Reformer John Bradford saw this with unusual clarity. That’s why he mouthed these words to himself so often: “There but for the grace of God go I.”