One custom that is present all over the latin world is that of a kiss and a hug upon meeting.  An embrace for the men and a kiss for the ladies.  It is a long tradition and as we talk about changes, this is a tradition  we do not want to lose.

            As we can feel at this moment, the world is changing. I don’t know if I’m ready for it. What we are being asked to do is calling to the surface feelings I have harbored for the past several months.  When you get to a certain time and you start to wind down and are faced with an uncertain future. Over the last few years Sandy and myself have worked hard on remodeling a home,  planting gardens and also making a close group of friends here in Mexico Now we are faced with the same challenges that we encounter when asked to stay inside your house for the next fifteen days.

            This time of social distancing presents the same challenges as I faced in retirement, not of an uncertain future but a lack of direction in my life.  Two weeks or two years does have an end zone.  We hope at the end of that time things will return to normal, or whatever normal we want to have.  In retirement there is also an end zone, but an end zone we are not excited to meet. In both cases you asked yourself in the morning is “What am I going to do today?”   Many people have tried to answer this question for me but somehow I do fit into golfing, pickle ball or model building.  When you spent your whole life working hard every day at something you love it’s hard when that is taken away from you. Be it something you’ve done all your life or something you are just in the habit of doing.  When that is taken away your life changes. Am I being asked to save the world by laying on my couch for two or three weeks or am I being left to lounge on the couch for a much longer time. It is the same with “stay at home” or “retirement.”

            So at the moment I am trying to figure out both. I am trying to “flatten the curve” and contemplate this world will look life after this pandemic.  This thing has already done terrible things to the world’s economy.  Nobody believes that after we begin to recover things will be the same.  Small businesses and large are going to be affected. It might take years for the damage to be repaired.  The question is “What will the new normal look like?

I hope the world always looks like this man.

Thank you, Vincente Fox