It must surely be the most overused sentence in the English language. And never in the last 100 years has it meant so much to so many people, in our own neighborhoods and across the globe.

It has many derivatives, including my favorite, often uttered by my late great mother-in-law in her sweet Virginia mountain accent, “How you?” But the thought, when it carries one, is the same. The asker has some level of interest in knowing how the person being asked is coping with life, its ups and downs.

One of the major changes manifested by this persistent pandemic, perhaps unnoticed, is the evolution of that question from a simple greeting into a genuine desire to know how a partner in conversation, their families, and their co-workers are holding up under the significant stresses of the economic and health crises caused by COVID-19 and the social unrest that has troubled our souls.

An extended personal exchange has lengthened most of my phone calls since mid-March. “So, really, how are you doing?” is common to hear in my conversations.

So I urge you now, do keep me informed on this most critical issue: how are you doing? On the one hand, we have all been kept busy by PPP and a range of other needs for our customers and members. And that’s a very good thing for all parties.

But the hard truth is that almost all of us are “Type A” extroverts, in a business that thrives on, and often claims sole ownership of, the powerful value of interpersonal relationships, and this peculiar challenge, this pandemic, has robbed us of the most powerful element of those relationships: the person-to-person exchange. That’s one reason our August 3 golf tournament was so valuable. It was an oasis in the desert, to be sure.

So we shouldn’t be concerned in the least about openly admitting how draining and downright sad it is that we’ve temporarily lost this essential function from our daily lives. Our work is critically important, and we’re built to bear down and move ahead, which is a good thing. But in my view, we do that best when we occasionally pause to reflect on the loss of face-to-face conversations and claim the hope that the full return to them will be — glorious.