MINNEAPOLIS – Several years into the COVID-19 pandemic, a strong and symbolic form of greeting people is making a slow comeback. It's something many Americans specifically put off doing for some time.

If you’re old enough to have used a dial-up modem we’d bet you can do an imitation of the sounds it made while connecting. Those not-so-beautiful sounds heralded the dawning of a technological era.

It's a ritual we take for granted, when we say hello, when we say goodbye, as a gesture of good will, as a show of respect … and it's something we've all of a sudden had to learn not to do. But ...