My working world is beginning to reopen. Following months of relative isolation, it’s been easier to remerge on the social scene than I had expected. Engaging with colleagues and friends in the physical sphere has been welcoming. I’d missed the incidental encounters and random talks that can only happen in the real world. They lead you to unexpected places and create a web of new ideas. This is why I became a writer. And when it comes to the arts, there is really no substitute for experiencing culture physically.

Yet, somethings have changed. Our human interactions have become more measured – we are listening more attentively to one another and few seem to be in much of rush to go elsewhere. Pre-pandemic, media colleagues were often busy planning their next move, their eyes hovering over your shoulder, their attention only partially present. Many took pride in their roller-coaster working lives. For some Covid appears to have softened the race. And with great results.

This year, I have had more compelling conversations with family, friends and colleagues than I can remember. Our Sunday family park walks are packed with lively debates. I’ve met strangers who are now acquittances and will remain part of my life. During the pandemic I corresponded much more intimately with old pals in distant places. With one, we made the extra effort of continuing our postal mail – letters, postcards, newspaper clippings.

Pre-pandemic we came together from different background and with other experiences. Now we share a common episode, an event-of-sorts that unifies us all. Yes, the health crisis has had a very different impact on various social groups, but it is still a global experience – a shared experience. When I speak with my aunt in Tehran, she understands my references and I empathise with her isolation.

The pandemic has united us as a human race, revealing our vulnerability and highlighting the fragility of life, our interdependency on one another and on other beings which co-habit this earth. In a strange way – and I’m by no means glorifying it – it’s been a much-needed prelude to our upcoming crisis, the much bigger climate crisis, which will certainly require a hugely unified global effort to combat. Pandemics, as they say, are punctuation points in history.