The New Normal

That seems to be the phrase these days. The “New normal”. Just because everything is different and nothing is normal, this seems to just sum it all up. Accept. Move on. Get branded a conspiracy theorist if you question any aspect, or dare to wonder. That’s not normal. Or is it?

For me this new normal is a time of acceptance, as well as rejection. Rejecting some of the inane new rules; accepting that we need to toe the line, when it makes sense to protect those around us, as well as ourselves. Rejection of the person who I have become, as well as accepting that I can change some things: my hair, my weight, my attitude, my actions. Dab some mascara on to feel a little glamorous. But I cannot change being the age I am now, or my past.

Now, more than ever, as much as most of us we feel that we are in touch with the rest of the world, thanks to social media, we are really living in our own little bubbles. What if the powers that be, the ones who make the world wide web go around, decide to pull the plug. Could they? Where would all those connections be then? How much of what we think we are experiencing is real? If you were cut off from the rest of the world, excepting for direct contact, what would your normal be? Would you start arguments with strangers, people you have never actually met?

I remember a childhood book. Not so much the story, although I think it involved a floppy eared rabbit, but the moral of the story was that normal is what you are. So although I think I was a bit different, and still am, and I come from a long line of “different”, fabulous folk, my difference is normal to me, and to those who love me. Nothing about this time is really normal at first perception, but it is this time, and it is what it is. Different but normal for now.

There is something about time. We (mostly) see it as a series of events that happen in a straight line. Birth, growth, death, and all the happenings in between. 1920 was further down the line, 2020 is now. But maybe it is a circle, and we keep repeating, and doing the same things over and over again. Today’s normal might not be so new. It could be yesterday’s warning. However you choose to see it. You can choose to learn, to wonder..