Denis Lehane: No courting in the time of coronavirus
bemoans the destruction of romance by the necessary measures to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
How are courting couples managing, I wonder, in these days of social isolation?
I am a married man myself, so I can practice social distancing with impunity.
But I have to wonder what life is like for the single Denny Lehane out there.
The man desperately seeking a woman, but unable to secure one because of all this pariah-like behaviour.
If I were a single man these days, the women would be running away from me now more than they ever did.
The rules, as they apply, while necessary of course to tame the virus, will do no good at all in the taming of a man’s heart.
They won’t tame his natural desires. The struggle of finding a life partner has never been greater.
Some might argue, give it time, all restrictions will ease. But that’s no good for romance, which was never designed with a time scale.
If I didn’t go to Barrett’s Bar, Coppeen, on a winter’s night back in November 1997, I would have never met my wife.
It’s as simple as that.
A moment comes and then it is gone forever. Romance is all about ships that bump in the night. And what I’m trying to say, in a roundabout way, is, there is now no way for ships to bump in the night.
Because of coronavirus, we are all sailing on separate seas. We are all paddling our own canoes, and will go on doing so until Easter Sunday at least.
As a good friend of mine, a single farmer, I might add, shouted over the boundary ditch the other morning: “Fellows will go mad altogether before the restrictions are relaxed.”
“How do you know you’re not mad already?” I shouted back.
Out here in the countryside, social distancing is easy. I have been doing it all my life. And since the great rural pub closures of 2018, we have all been doing it more than ever.
But, for the single man who would like to escape the ordinary and try a bit of social interaction, the option no longer exists.
A night in a dance hall is no longer available to him.
The disco is off limits, the late night city bar a figment of his imagination.
The city lights in general are no longer an invitation to fun and frolics.
All that is left to him are the ‘Getting in touch’ pages online and in newspapers.
Alas for the man desiring a bit of courting, these are testing times. How can he possibly whisper sweet nothings into the ear of a woman, and her ear over two metres from his mouth?
How can he tell her, her eyes are just like his mother’s, and he too far away to see anything? How can he inquire if she would like to be buried with his people, and he not sure what the future holds.
Romance has been dealt a deadly blow by coronavirus, it’s as simple as that.
The single man is alone now, in every sense. First the pub was taken for him, and now the opportunity to meet a prospective life partner snatched from his grasp.
Not only has coronavirus deprived us of our freedom, but it has deprived the single man of the opportunity to get attached.
