I grew up just outside the outskirts of a quiet city. The city had the small town atmosphere. Farms and ranches were within an hour’s drive. This was where I learned about quarantine and isolation.

I watched the vast areas of farm lands during drives outside the city. In between, the swine farms made their presence known by defining the character of the air’s odor (the smell of money). We never ventured into these areas and I started to wonder. Isolation (or, rather reverse isolation), a strictly enforced policy, was not yet part of my vocabulary. It guaranteed the healthy growth and production of animals and plants. Quarantine also became part of my vocabulary.

Fast forward to 2019 and the pandemic happened. The pandemic has given the words quarantine and isolation a whole new level of significance. People don’t associate quarantine and isolation anymore to plants and animals (I think). Human beings are now the ones advised to quarantine and isolate. Words fascinate me but the shifting significance of words has never been more profound.