Eating together, separately

The other day I baked a cake from a box  in the pantry, just so we could enjoy some cake while watching our grand-daughter eat her birthday cake via Zoom. Her cake looked amazing and they say it tasted great too; mine tasted like it came out of a box, but it felt good to be eating together, at a distance. This morning I had a brief Zoom appointment with a colleague who always shares her oranges with me, and I peeled and ate an orange while we talked just so it would feel like we were eating together even if we couldn't be in the same room or even the same county.

I've been impressed with the many ways people are doing things together while maintaining social distance. Here are a few examples:

• Members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra play Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring together, separately (click here).
• People everywhere are figuring out how to play board games online with friends (click here). 
• Miss choir practice? Sing along with a virtual choir online (here or here or just Google "online virtual choir"). 

Most of the things I do for fun don't lend themselves to online sharing. (Want to go on a hike in the woods with me? Fine--just stay six feet away.) But singing or playing or sharing a meal with others even if we're not in the same house feels viscerally satisfying: even a cake that came out of a box tastes better when we share it with people we love. 

Mmm, chocolate. Here, have a bite.