What is “Normal” Anymore?
My face was recognized in the grocery store. Recognized by my iPhone. I was grocery shopping, pulled out my phone to check the grocery list and my lock screen opened without my punching in my passcode. It was weird, for the last year checking my grocery list in the grocery store meant putting in my passcode because my phone didn’t recognize my masked face. It was odd, are we back to normal?-it certainly didn’t feel normal. Or is this now the new normal?
Since March 2020, we’ve used the phrase “new normal” to describe everything from mask wearing, to social distancing, to not visiting friends, no concerts, limited travel and so on. It was the catchphrase that described everything new that we had to get used to. Thing is it became the normal. We now instinctively grab for our masks when we get out of the car (or at least catch ourselves at the door to the grocery store, before realizing something is missing). We got really embarrassed when we had to sneeze in public, or God forbid we cough-even if it was “allergies.” We built new habits and now we are emerging and it’s like grinding gears going back to what used to be “normal.”
You wonder why you’re tired these days? Because everything is new all over again. Every meal in a restaurant, journey to a public place, walk around the block, and visit to a grocery store, grinds our social gears as we have to think about the proper protocol and deal with the anxieties of “is this safe?”
Have you gone back to the office yet? It is a serious gear grinder. We ask ourselves “what am I supposed to do here, what am I allowed to do here, what are people comfortable with me doing here?” I took an invoice to somebody in accounting, she wears a mask at work because she lives with her elderly Mom with health conditions. I had to think, “what’s the best thing to do here-wear a mask, not wear a mask, will she be offended or bothered if I do/don’t?” I spent brain energy thinking about how to hand over an invoice. No wonder I’m more tired than usual at the end of the day.
Recently, we walked into church with our masks on, and when we got to the door realized that it was now mask optional for vaccinated people. So, my wife and I looked at each other and I took my mask off and she kept hers on. Then she started thinking, “wait, if I leave it on, then people will think I’m not vaccinated and I want people to know I am vaccinated”… so when we got to our seats she took off her mask. But she didn’t feel all together comfortable. After the church gathering, our good friends came up and we looked at each other with that “how do I greet you? ‘’ look. We’re all huggers, but this is different should we, shouldn’t we, do we ask? Do we just go in for the hug? Is it safe? What’s the right thing to do here? All of our gears were grinding and we chuckled and awkwardly asked “hugs?” and everybody’s arms opened and we decided to hug.
In the last year, the new normal just became “normal,” now the normal is being adjusted again back to the old normal. Keep having grace with each other, we’re all at a different place on this “what is normal” spectrum. I started a new job that “returned to work” my first day on the job, so I’ve been out of the house daily since May, my wife on the other hand doesn’t go back to the office until September… until last week when it became “optional.” Her mental transition back to the office was set for September 1, and the idea of moving that up two months was gear grinding-as it was for everybody else in her office. Have grace with yourself, have grace with others. Once again, we’re all trying to figure this out.
As we crawl out from under the rock that was shelter in place, be good to one another. The old normal is a new normal, and now the old normal just feels weird. And soon it will just feel normal again. As we learned last year, be ready for another transition, be flexible and roll with it, it’ll be normal real soon.