There is a lot of talk about the “end of the pandemic” or “opening up the economy” for life to return to normal. What if this is the new normal and it is time for us to adjust to it instead of waiting for it to end. I happen to have school-aged children and a parent that lives with us and we are all just biding time until the end.
A recent article in the New York Times that spelled out the path forward had me thinking that life is rarely so neat as to proceed exactly as we predict it will. The reality is always messier, longer and full of surprises. So, rather than waiting for the end of this crisis, what if we embraced our new normal?
What if visiting family via Zoom becomes the norm instead of the outlier? Wouldn’t that make it possible to be as close to distant relatives as the ones that live near? Could we possibly be more involved in each other’s lives by sharing little details of our days rather than one big visit once or twice a year?
How about if small business re-tool and become the leaders in distant commerce? Perhaps someone could come up with a measurement model and then help us figure out how clothing would fit so we could buy online with more confidence. Or, validate consumer reviews so that we can trust the stars given by prior purchasers. What about a local version of Amazon – I don’t care where I get my toilet paper, cleaning products, office supplies. I would prefer to buy local, but I really need a good price and convenience.
Maybe instead of working 40-60 hours a week, commuting 2 hours a day and then making time for family and housework, more of us permanently work from home and have time for deep and meaningful interactions with the people that live in our homes.
If we spend more time home, there is less need for keeping up with the Jones. Maybe we become better custodians of the earth, our gardens, and our health.
What if our churches had many more services throughout the weekend so that we had a more intimate relationship with those that we shared pews with, possibly even a more meaningful relationship with God?
Many medical appointments could be made online, particularly if we had access to a reliable thermometer, blood pressure band and scale, for instance.
Schools could do much of their work via online learning and get together for specific classes/programs that required hands on or for students that required more assistance.
In our case, we are going stir-crazy and we keep talking about the end of this lockdown, but honestly, we are all secretly enjoying the time together. Yes, my work hours have been cut considerably, but frankly I am not spending nearly as much money, so that seems to be balancing out so far. Going to the grocery store twice a month forces us to be creative with our food and limits all the impulse buys. No need for dry cleaners, ready-to-eat meals and snacks, coffee/lunch money, new clothes, haven’t filled my gas tank in well over a month and many more things that we spend our money on to make our busy lives easier.
Now that my children are not in school, I am not buying numerous gifts, party supplies, playground fundraisers, PTA contributions. Instead, I am using my time to help them figure out how to use the online dictionary. And if there is extra money, we buy marshmallows so that we can do s’mores at night. I recently stopped buying bread, thought we could make bread or do without. As a family we made several loaves. This week we will try to make our own cheese.
While not everyone is as lucky as us and has a roof over their heads or money for food at this time, the reality is this might not end anytime soon. We must find a way to do more than survive in this new normal. For our part, we are making masks, 3D printing mask attachments, delivering caps to healthcare workers and have started collecting food for the food pantry. When we order pizza, we tip as much as if they were our friends struggling to feed their family. We’ve all gone through our home and donated several minivan loads of clothing, kitchen items, household goods and bikes. When our electrical panel started making noises, we reached out to an out of work contractor instead of a big name company. We are not unique in our efforts, but we finally have enough time to choose our actions rather than doing out of expediency. I rather like the more deliberate life we are experiencing right bow.
I’m not saying that I hope to stay in lockdown indefinitely, but rather than waiting for it to end to start living again, I am going to embrace this period of calm while we are all under the same roof. Not to mention that at this point, all we can do is make the most of it. The vaccine may not be available for years, treatments will work for some and not for others, at some point parts of society will open back up but others won’t and then we may all end up in lockdown again. No matter how it looks, Covid-19 will be with us for a while, let’s make this our new normal even if just for a few weeks.
