ROTHENBURGER – Fist bumps and other things from the pandemic we should keep

It’s clear that people love those patios, but they were intended as a temporary COVID thing. They were cobbled together with 2X6s and no-post concrete barriers the first summer but were succeeded by brick pavers this year.

The issue doesn’t seem to be parking — nobody seems to care that there are a few less parking spaces around for shopping. Winter is the big question. Unless we’re doing something that requires motion — like skiing, playing hockey, curling or throwing snowballs — we’d just as soon be indoors from November to March. A hot cup of coffee doesn’t do the trick outside when it’s 20 below.

Regardless, the patios are worth keeping, even if merchants have to provide patrons with blankets and mittens a la Bernie Sanders.

But home offices and sidewalk patios are big items requiring big discussions. I’m thinking about some of the smaller things. Such as those arrows on the floors of retail establishments, telling us which way we should walk. I’d like to keep those arrows, not because anybody pays much attention to them — especially now — but because they serve as a reminder of what we’ve all been through and the fact we had to get there by moving in the same direction, together.

And why not keep those social distancing stickers, and all that expensive plexiglass? They can’t hurt, can they?

Another small but really nice thing is how we’ve been able to call the library ahead of picking up the stuff we reserved online, and when we get there it’s waiting for us in a brown paper bag. A librarian hands us the bag, we exchange a cheery “Have a great day,” and off we go. No muss, no fuss.

But maybe my favourite small thing I’d like to keep is the fist bump. It began as an elbow rub but that was awkward — and you had to get too close to the other person, anyway — so we migrated to the fist bump.

We’ve been raised for generations to greet each other with handshakes but fist bumps are so much quicker and less formal, and there’s no worry about sweaty or crushed hands.

The handshake has been around since ancient Greece, where it was regarded as a way to ensure the person you were greeting that you weren’t carrying a weapon.

Hopefully (though sometimes you have to wonder), we’re past worrying about that. There are other options but, despite what Dr. Bonnie Henry says, not everybody likes to hug, especially strangers. And high fives are just silly.

There’s also supposedly a one-knuckle version of the bump but that might be taking it about seven knuckles too far.

I figured I’d get my name in all the papers as the first person to come out in favour of retaining the fist bump as a permanent thing, but I see I was beaten to the punch long ago. The fist-bump movement goes back several years, long before COVID. Some say Barack and Michelle Obama brought it into prominence on nomination night in 2008. Others say basketball players started it, in which case we could claim ownership since we invented the game itself.

Even Dr. Fauci thinks we should get rid of the handshake, but that’s based on hygiene (80 per cent of all infections are supposedly transmitted via hand touching), which isn’t the main point here. It’s about speed, ease and simplicity.

In my books, if we keep one thing from the pandemic, it should be the fist bump.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER – Fist bumps and other things from the pandemic we should keep

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