After what is likely to become a year or more of limited and virtual relationships we need to find new or re-established ways of coming together as humankind. We have been held separate and isolated, first by the disease but then by protective social distancing and this has come a great cost to many and perhaps a higher cost to all than we are yet to fully realise. This needs positive and dynamic remedies. But the premise here is that society already suffered with terrible separation before the pandemic, which then massively exposed the problem, the reality of separation to everyone. We had often become divided by so much including wealth, opportunity, ownership, inclusion and online opinion. Now we were divided by life or death. We need to find news ways of coming together to share our experience, help one another, laugh together and set in trend diverse new ways of sharing our lives, for the benefit of all, aiding both recovery and future wellbeing. This coming together is the establishing and re-establishing of trans-societal connections for all, from the youngest infants to our senior citizens, across all and any possible shared interest or unrelated groups. This is about re-establishing and building community by the community, for the community. The usual structures of local authority or governance are unlikely to be part of any solution (although these are, of course, acknowledged as vital to the good workings of community). This coming together needs to be about local people, within any describable community; a plurality of local people, looking out for their own community. Perhaps this is a village or distinct parts of towns and cities, and defined by a place of connection. A place where people live, work and play. This is the huge challenge of reuniting society.
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