March 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic promoted K-12 and higher education institutions in North America to abruptly transition curricula to online and hybrid formats. As the literature notes, schools discussed digital distance learning programs long before this particular moment in the spring semester. Yet the poignant lesson from the transition had little to do with platforms or particular technologies, tech savvy or luddite. Instead, challenges fundamental to digital distance learning were witnessed-- philosophical and practical questions about the staggering loss of the affective components of teaching and learning. The digital, online teacher subjects themselves to levels of scrutiny unparalleled in the analog classrooms of 30 years ago. That teacher also engages an educational space that largely disengages the deeply human aspects of interaction--emotional intelligence, empathy, affect. The pandemic prompted some teachers to reconsider the profession. The pandemic also prompted teachers to more poignantly than ever see the affective elements of teaching. As teachers became burdened with work and social restrictions, health precautions, potential economic loss, childcare and other unexpected responsibilities, they found parallel experiences with students. Status markers faltered as the "professor" related to the "sophomore" as a fellow human being. Using the online transition during the pandemic to spark fruitful discussion, the author makes suggestions for working towards an empathic model of online education.