Whenever it does — by universal distribution of an effective vaccine, or by the virus mutating to become less lethal to humans — how will we shape the civ­il­iza­tion that evolves on the other side?

The shape of the society to come will be determined by the sum total of the in­di­vidual choices we make as we finally emerge, blinking, from isolation and lockdown. What personal habits will you change? What new habits, grown in the time of social distancing, will you carry forward?

Read A letter to your future self by Nesrine Malik, writing in The Correspondent. Ms. Malik is Muslim, and she uses the annual experience of fasting during Ramadan to speculate on the natural human tendency to overcompensate after a period of disruption or privation. She wants to forearm us to the possibility that all of our current intensely felt resolutions to make things better, once we emerge, may dissolve in a burst of exultation when we are able again to gather in large groups, to dine together, and to hug one another.

This blog constitutes my reminder note, in part.