We hear that phrase all the time these days. Things we never gave a second thought to: hand-shakes, dinner out, singing at mass, have all changed in these days. We’re discovering a new way to carry out everyday activities . . . behavior that becomes a new normal.
Looking back over my life and I find I’ve lived through several new normals. Things that were normal “back then” seem rather strange and austere. See if you did these things and thought nothing of it.
- I’m embarrassed to say this but back in Ohio as kids we would shower once a week (Saturday night) and quickly so as to “save hot water”.
- Pop, as we called it, was for birthdays and Christmas. The bottles were 7 oz’s.
- Tooth paste was a squeeze the size of a green pea on your brush. Again, to save tooth paste.
- Aluminum foil was to be used and folded neatly for the next time.
- Holes in socks got “darned”.
- Lingering on the phone more than a minute or two was deemed decadent – – – “Someone may be trying to call us!” (This was particularly painful in the teen years when “first loves” started blossoming).
- You’d fill up on bread and gravy when the meat and potatoes ran out.
- If you couldn’t pay cash, you wouldn’t buy it.
- Mowing the yard was not a sit down job.
- A summer job could pay a big part of college tuition. I know you’ve seen these look-back stories before. I’m sure you have your own memories of what was just the normal way of doing things. The point is simple – – these last 50 years have seen an unprecedented growth in personal wealth and expectations for the future. We thought this would go on forever.
But now we are beginning to experience limits to our prosperity and an unprecedented interruption of life in the current pandemic. It causes some anxiety. Statewide shut-downs and social distancing over Covid, unemployment almost tripling since March, mask wearing required most everywhere, remote learning for children this fall, all begin to create a new way of living. We’re still searching for some new routine we can call normal.
So what does one do? So many things are changing.
I’m no expert here. I’m dealing with these things just like you are. But . . . it seems to me it would help if we adjusted our old expectations to embrace the new situations. Expect things like:
- People being grumpier. We don’t know how hard their day has been. Let’s cut them some slack. Smile.
- Voices telling us we’ll never recover the “good old days”. (Probably true. But that doesn’t mean we’re headed for the “bad new days.” We might even become better people through all this.)
- People giving easy solutions to complex problems. Things like, “put ‘em all in jail.” Or, “Just vote Democratic (or Republican), that’ll fix things.” Or, “This is a free country. Nobody can tell me to . . . “ We have to learn to live together. To sacrifice, to listen to others, to wait so answers can emerge.
Lastly it helps to hear what Jesus said about uncertain times. (Read Matthew 7:24-27). Two people built their house. One built on a foundation of rock. The other put his house on sand. The winds blew and the rains came down. One house stood strong, the other, built on sand was washed away.
The lesson? Hard times came ON BOTH HOUSES. Neither was spared. But the one who had built on rock (God’s word) and took the time to drive the footers deep into God’s way of life – – that one stood the test.
Bless your house.
FR. Tim
