Have you noticed that over the last few weeks our world has changed?
Not only that, but our language has changed with it.
There are five words/phrases that barely existed three weeks ago, and now they govern our conversations. They have their own hashtags. Many of us regard ourselves as experts on them, even though we rarely know what we’re talking about.
In any event, here they are. Five new phrases that have not only inserted themselves into our common language, they dominate it:
One. Social distancing. An introvert’s dream, an extrovert’s nightmare, and an ambivert’s meh.
Two. Flatten the curve. Sounds like an ab workout, but it’s not.
Three. Shelter in place. Well, a storm IS threatening my very life today.
Four. Community spread. Sounds like you’d put in on your toast but is actually what we’re trying to avoid.
Five. Epidemiology. Pardon me, your epidermis is showing? No, it’s not anything like that. It is the new subject about which we now have a million self-declared experts.