Distance, Fear and Intimacy in COVID Time

Abstract

In the middle of what seems to be an endless worldwide traumatic event, currently the world is plagued by four overlapping crises—the coronavirus, a climate crisis, an economic collapse and political crisis. Early on it became evident that people with certain underlying conditions are particularly vulnerable to the virus as well as others who are more privileged. But the virus also laid bare the world's underlying conditions—a heartless economy, a failure to invest in the public good, and polarized population of poor and rich, left and right, young and old, religious and secular, black and white, etc. This chapter relates first to some ethical and technical dilemmas that were faced in this time of COVID-19. The author addresses some issues from work with small groups and with large groups (conducting and teaching).