As the weeks go by, the reality of the “new normal” is beginning to set in. For a few weeks back in early April, I felt as if the Stay at Home and hand washing would be temporary. I assumed that after a certain period of time, stores would reopen, traffic would come back, toilet paper would be plentiful again and we wouldn’t have to wear masks or wash our hands constantly. However, with unemployment at the highest level since the Great Depression and cases of Covid-19 still increasing around the country, the new normal is “not normal”. It is likely that there will be substantial permanent changes to the way we live and play, and those changes will not go away even if we have effective treatment and a vaccine for this disease. Add to all that, the crushing impact of racism, and it is easy to feel helpless and hopeless. Indulge me when I acknowledge where we are — because I hope to end with some ideas about where we can be if we work at it!
Come September of this year, schools are not likely to reopen in the same way. There will be a lot more online learning. Loneliness among young people may become a way of life, and they may turn more and more to their gaming and social media, which do not replace real person to person interaction. Parents will be challenged to teach their kids and still earn a living. We will need to restructure how we organize child care, how we shop for food, how we interact with each other, how we worship.
I don’t think we will see stadiums full of people cheering on the home team any time in the next few years. I don’t imagine we will easily get on a flight somewhere unless it is urgent. Going to the movies will be replaced by at home viewing on cable TV. Restaurants full of noisy patrons will be replaced by quiet venues with tables spaced apart and servers covered in protective gear. The underlying fear of infection will be ever present, creating anxiety and even paranoia about strangers and physical contact.
I have never been one to look backward or talk about the “good old days,” but this new “not normal” has made me struggle to remain optimistic. If we can keep some of the joy and satisfaction we had in those “old days” as we move forward, is it possible we might actually see a future that is better than what we had?. How could that possibly happen? Covid-19 has exposed some serious fault lines of economics and race in our society. The jobs that have been lost have been largely low paying jobs, and too many who have died have been old or persons of color.
Covid-19 is demanding that we create a new future for ourselves, so we should start dreaming big now. What if we had a minimum national income like Andrew Yang and others have proposed so that people did not have to worry about having enough to eat? What if we could turn volunteer work into paid work so that people could help others and still earn a living doing so, like 100,000 new jobs for contact tracers? What if working for a clean environment was a real job and there were a lot more of these jobs? What if the neighborliness that has emerged from this period could survive and even flourish? What if we once again welcomed strangers to our homes and our land? What if we continued to bake bread and cake and share with our neighbors? What if we invested in research and preparedness for the inevitable next pandemics or challenges? I truly believe in the goodness of Americans, the incredible intelligence of our scientists, the willingness of some of our leaders to do the right thing in spite of pressure to the contrary. We can take back our goodness and kindness from those who would tear it down. It really is up to us, each one of us. Every act of kindness and generosity builds up a savings account of goodness in our homes, on our blocks, in our cities.
(Check out comments on this post by our subscribers! They have some good ideas about what we can learn from the pandemic.)
Here are some more Limericks by Marvin L. Chaney:
On Taking the Long View
“When we get back to normal, well, then . . . ,”
Is a phrase often part of our ken.
We’ve “new normal” to face.
The beginning of grace
Is to learn we can’t go “home” again.
We’re not done yet; the plague rages on.
New infections relaxed measures spawn.
We’re still near the beginning,
Just about second inning.
Much depends on how game’s played anon.
We’re conditioned to ponder short-term,
But this crisis requires, I affirm,
That we take longer view,
The quick fix calm eschew.
Facile “truth”—hindsight oft makes it squirm.