As the time of Pause in New York City and State begins to draw to an end, I hear about the new normal. I wonder what normal is? Reminders to keep a social distance of 6 to 13 feet from one another are everywhere. Washing our hands for 20 seconds with warm soap and water or sanitizers has become a new obsession. Three-ply cloth facemasks or health-care masks are the expected. Is that normal?
The streets are less active and, at times, even empty. It is easier to breathe, and the sky is so blue! Yet, nutritionally challenged families are, standing in lines at food pantries for enough to eat. We hear chants on the streets for justice, peace, and safety. We see words and deeds filled with brutality on our evening news. Different is even more of a challenge. A normal we need to change.
We are being made aware of how we interact at home. What we did not think of essential, such as cleaners, box persons, postal workers, and those in public safety, have become visible. Health care can no longer be an option but an essential for all of us.
Some have missed our team sports, and all of us have realized how talented, patient, and vital our teachers and educators are for our future.
We are becoming aware of how insular and isolated we are. The world is joining us in calling for unity and healing. New eyes are looking at what we have called normal and wondering if perhaps that was the perversity.
Protest marches, that earlier in the week might have been looting, and a riot with arrests and injury are becoming calls for justice, peace, open hands. The anger and pain remain without the destructive rage to destroy but to transform and renew. The grief and mourning call us to join together and change.
New normal? No, not our normal, but the possibility of healing, growth, and living change. Pushing and pulling us, making us stand with open hands, together, caring for each other and this world and showing us what life should be!
