What Will, Our New Normal, Look Like?

What Will, Our New Normal, Look Like?

By Ed Kociela

The new parameters of normality will be anything but normal, at least when compared with what we were used to no less than six months ago.

We are seeing a nasty increase in instances of coronavirus in Utah as we drop our guard. How many lives will be sacrificed, before some sensibility is inserted into the equation?

Look, I get it.

I understand the frustration.

I am, by no means, a social butterfly who flitters from gathering to gathering, event to event.

I’m not antisocial, just at a place where I no longer feel the need to be in the midst of everything.

Having been on virtual lockdown for a few months now, I’m getting a little restless.

It’s not that I am itching to get out and about and cruise St. George Boulevard. But, the rebellious side of me resents being told I cannot get out and about, that I can’t just go out, wander the shops, sit down to a meal in a restaurant and enjoy the companionship of friends.

However, I also understand the other side of that, knowing that it is better to take precautions and be safe than to risk it all just for a good time.

It leaves me, of course, wondering how it will feel the first time I leave my house without a facemask, how it will feel to be rubbing shoulders in close proximity with the public. Will I greet old friends with a hug? A handshake? A fist bump?

Will I settle in next to them in a chair? How long will we keep this social distancing stuff going? When will I stop washing my hands 147 times a day?

How soon is too soon?

How long can this go on?

When will we get the green light?

How will they – the experts with the science behind them, rather than the idiot boy who failed biology three times in high school – know when it is safe?

If you have made this whole thing into some kind of political statement, you are denser than the idiot boy who failed biology three times in high school. Politics, believe it or not, has nothing to do with wearing a mask. Science and commonsense, however, do.

The nation is wounded right now.

There is, of course, the pandemic, the continued killing of innocent African-Americans, the raging unemployment, the calls for more and more violence, the avalanche of lies that promises to drown us all.

Now that I think of it, I’m not sure I want to go out into that world.

But, it is the only world we know, the only existence we have, so we had better make the best of it.

I’m not exactly sure how Utah officials decided to lighten the precautions, but I have serious questions.

I mean, weren’t we supposed to go through at least two weeks of significant drops in the number of cases before easing up the restrictions?

A friend of mine is going to be a grandmother in a couple of weeks.

I wonder what kind of world that child will grow up in.

I fear not much will have changed by the time that child comes of age.

I would like to think that, perhaps, our racial prejudices would be put to the side by then, but they probably won’t.

I would like to think that, perhaps, we will embrace science rather than political ideology in that future, that we will make decisions based on fact rather than misguided emotion, but they probably won’t.

I would like to think we will apply some economic principles that encourage and support the entire population rather than cater to the fat cats with deep pockets, but they probably won’t.

I would like to think that in that future, we learn to respect and love each other better.

We are not doing a perfect job of that right now. If you loved and respected your neighbor, your friend, your family, you wouldn’t be so thick-headed as not to wear facemasks to protect them from anything you might be carrying. It also speaks volumes to a lack of intellect that reasons that if the president doesn’t wear a facemask, why should I?

You should wear one because you matter, I matter, we all matter, and we should look after each other, protect each other.

It’s an affirmation of the link we all share despite our political, cultural, religious differences.

It would qualify as a “new normal,” as they are calling it, but that probably won’t happen.

We always seem more enamored with the “good ole’ days,” even if they weren’t, because of that weird nostalgia lure rather than looking forward to a more promising tomorrow.

But, to be honest, when we get back to “normal,” I would rather it be full of promise and hope rather than tired, black, and white “Leave It To Beaver” flashbacks.

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