Staying In Versus Going Out

I was having a discussion with a friend the other day about the world in The Midst of The Plague and made the comment that I truly felt like I had little interest in venturing out much at all, even after this is all "over" (whatever that ends up really meaning).

She pressed me a little on it, especially on the question of things like vacations.  My response was not really all that different:  even if we get back "to traveling", I do not know how likely I am to want to do that either.

Is it concern about The Plague?  Possibly, although really more a commentary on the general state of physical health.:  people are on the whole a sort of bacterial factory waiting to happen.  Just because The Plague is reduced does not mean that those more mundane diseases, from the flu to Hepatitis, are not out there waiting to find us.  People were not really good about that before; it is not likely that they will be better about it now.

That general concern extends to almost everywhere people are:  movies, sporting events, and concerts (not that I really went to many of these anyway) become even less appealing (imagine the joy at a sporting event of being the one person, at the moment of silence during The Star Spangled Banner, that breaks into a cough).  Stores, which may have things I actually want, have the questionable benefit of having people's hands all over the items I am looking at. Restaurants run the same risk, (food handling - I try not to think of it too often, but yeah, there is that). 

In other words I pretty much just want to stay here.

But I am caught in the mental trap of knowing that in point of fact, those things do need to happen.  People need to be out at entertainment venues and stores and restaurants or else the economy does not truly restart:  Like it or not, we are a service economy:  if we are not buying and selling things, the economy will not expand.  Millions will remain without jobs.

So I find myself caught in the trap of seeing everything from both sides, the personal concern and the financial concern (the worst place to be, by the way). 

Maybe there is a paradigm shift I am missing here - maybe somehow, somewhere, bright people are figuring out ways to meaningfully get people out there and buying while protecting health.  Disruptions can produce great advances.

....That said, I am still probably staying inside....