Art Heals: Virtual Touch

I have been thinking about how the phrase, keeping in touch, no longer includes actual touch. For a long time now, even before our forced confinement, we have been “bowling alone” to borrow a phrase from the title of a book about community by Robert Putnam.
We reached out via Facebook, emails, FaceTime, Skype, text.  But rarely did we find time for the in-person visit. Traffic, the press of work, all reasons that the phrase “we really must get together soon” never actually came to fruition. We were socially isolating before we ever heard of the term.
Those virtual methods might have been convenient, then, but now they are a lifeline. People such as those in Gaza understand this all too well. For some of us, living alone in our homes or apartments, the possibility of actual touch is remote, if not impossible. We stand 6 feet away from the woman who delivers our meal or groceries, both wearing  gloves, and sharing only a smile (and if you can afford it, a larger than normal tip, so that those who risk everything to bring us our pizza are at least a little compensated.) If we have relatives in nursing homes, or in the hospital, the comfort of touch is sadly denied them, and us.
So for our art heals moment today, I ask you to touch with your eyes.
Here is an image by Meriem Elatra, titled L'Envolée II, made when her grandmother died at 96 years old. 
Virtual touch heals too.  Art Heals.