From the Editor

WILL we or won't we? Will we return to life as it was before two years of disruption, devastation and death caused by an inanimate but replicable ball of protein visible only under the most powerful of microscopes?

Or will the pandemic have permanently altered our day-to-day living patterns that everyone took for granted? Going to the mall, going to the movies, attending sports events and rock concerts where people stand cheek by jowl. Standing in queues in the bank. Commuting daily to and from an office in the centre of town. Attending work-related conferences … in the flesh. Amassing air miles on business trips.

I believe 2022 will be the year we start to get answers to these questions.

Already we have some idea of what has been transitory and what will be entrenched. And it won’t be a question of either-or. Yes, sure we will again do all those things listed above (except standing in queues in the bank ‒ if my bank can’t comprehensively attend to my banking needs digitally, then I will switch banks to one that can).

But the extent to which we do them will have changed, as will the spirit in which we do them. That’s because the virus has irrevocably changed the perception of the world for all that have survived it. In losing loved ones and losing our freedoms (even just temporarily), we are all a little bit sadder, a little bit more conscious of our vulnerability, and a little bit wiser.

Martin Hesse