Recently an eight-year-old asked me, Is this the Apocalypse? I answered from six feet away, through my mask, Probably not. This self-isolation won’t last forever. It will just feel that way. Besides, I said, Apocalypse means the end of the world as we know it. Maybe when the old world ends, a new world begins.

This child is indignant because people seem to have forgotten about climate change right now. That’s what concerns her most: the oceans rising, species disappearing. I tell her, People knew we had to stop using fossil fuels so we can slow down climate change, but we didn’t know how. Then the virus came along and made us stop driving and flying so much. We found out we could do it. That’s a good start.

I wanted to reassure her with a hug, not with words. Around the world, people are feeling a kind of phantom pain from not being able to hug our loved ones when we all need those hugs so badly. We’re writing, we’re calling, we’re Zooming, sending virtual hugs and kisses until the real things are possible again. This is a feature of the new world. The child is already comfortable with it.

When it’s safer, a month or two or however many down the road, I am going to hug this child so hard her bones will creak. Now we know how much it really means to be able to touch the people we love. We’ll bring that feature of the old one with us into our new world.