The temptation is strong to write about topics arising from the circumstances that have turned people’s lives upside down in recent weeks.

On the other hand, when most of us look out of our windows, we see spring. Spring flowers, bushes, and trees know nothing of our trials and tribulations. In fact if anything, the critters circling above and through the green glades are happier than ever. Roads are silent and human disturbance is low.

Quite a few people are finding extra joy in spring’s beauty now. Personally, I am an autumn/winter person, preferring orange, crimson, and yellow, followed by grey, black, and silver. But this year, spring seems extra welcome.

My favorite light political cartoon so far shows a stereotypical modern family which, alas, means family members sitting around, disengaged from one another, sucked into their media: the teenage son is slouched over a video game, the mom is fixated on her laptop, the dad is watching something on TV, and the younger sister is texting on her phone.

The caption reads “A Typical Family Before the Quarantine.”

Double-yuck, right? But, of course, this is what one finds in far too many living rooms these days . . . if the family ever simultaneously occupies the same room.

The next panel shows the same people outside. Mother is riding a bike, brother is skateboarding, sister and dad are tossing a ball over the doggie’s head who jumps with joy.

The caption changes to “A Typical Family During the Quarantine.”

It’s true, isn’t it? Someone threatens us with being unable to go outside and breathe fresh air, and, boom, we’re chomping at the bit to get out. In fact, a most significant take-away may be as follows: when told to contain your life within a screen, the screen loses its appeal fast.

One of my friends said that she opened her window the other day to a soundscape reminiscent of her childhood: kids were riding bikes and scooters, laughing and squealing. Quite a few parents were outside, too, doing the classic “throw the Frisbee” or “play catch” with their kids. We know these activities would not be happening during a “typical” day, when some modern families rarely see each other.

I walked through Walmart the other day and looked at the Toy and Game aisles. The overhead bike racks (normally bulging) were decimated. The wire rack holding balls was nearly empty. The board games were picked over. I was seeking a checkers game (ours got lost in the move), but no luck.

Interestingly, though, the plasticky and electronic toys seemed well stocked. Apparently, that’s not where the demand is right now. Kids are craving something to keep their minds and bodies active. Cheap plastic and electronic beeps do a poor job of that.

It should not be news that kids always need their minds and bodies active. It should also not be news that, societally, we have sunk into an awful state where the minds, bodies, and lives of our children have moved into a video screen. This problem won’t be fixed completely, even by our current pandemic circumstances.

But some kids will get the message. And even more importantly, some parents will see the light. They may even stop acting so helpless when their children whine about how they’ve “gotta” have their media.

As normalcy peeks over the horizon, let us hope that a long roster of positive lessons will take hold in our “typical” lives. I’ve already mentioned in these essays one dear to my heart: our long-standing need to grasp that grocery shelves stay full only because a long line of nameless people work hard at thankless jobs for our benefit. Another friend mentioned that she never again will take a warm handshake for granted. Amen on that one, because I’m a great fan of shaking hands, having learned its cultural importance decades ago with my first travels abroad.

We may not come to appreciate the ritual of the handshake like Europeans, but I hope we get a better sense of its significance. In recent years, handshakes have gotten knocked off the block by a new trend for hugging at the drop of a hat. A handshake means looking one another in the eye—the most intense of contacts, you could argue. A hug, in addition to awkwardness with people one barely knows, means peering into a hairdo or at a wall. Let’s get back to shaking hands as quickly as possible!

Thinking of shaking hands, personal contacts, and being together, here we find ourselves in a time period that ordinarily takes many of us on a journey through intense liturgical reenactments of Christ’s Passion, not to mention the commemoration of Passover. Congregations are handling the prohibitions against services in various ways. But, as so many are eloquently pointing out, what we humans are allowed to do in this or that place changes nothing about the power of these events. And for certain, a lot of us who might have moaned about too many choir rehearsals for Holy Week services will think twice before grumbling in the future.