Back to Normal

Last Sunday, Rev. Liz reminded us that, for the very first time, the residents of New Delhi were able to see the Himalayan Mountains. Can you imagine what such a once-in-a-lifetime, birthright view of vast beauty must have felt like? Breathtaking!

There are many arguments about how to save the world and us. In such debates, it isn’t that people aren’t listening; it’s more that they can’t understand the proposed solutions. “You mean to say, everybody would stop using gas?” Or, “The whole world will be at peace and everyone can be fed?” 

We just can't imagine it. Not when we’re convinced there just isn’t enough to go around — lest we take our portion first! Not when we're convinced there is more in it for us than the problem is taking from us. Only that’s not a worldview we like to face. That's why we’re all clamoring for the world to get back to normal, so we can get back to our comfort zones.
 
Yet, while we were all comfy and swiping right for incentives to some good life or struggling to get a handle on our habits, the world changed! The whole globe pressed pause. We stopped using gas and eating out. Hell, we can't even get a good haircut nowadays! And I am here to say this is GOOD. Please know, I am NOT saying Covid-19 is a good thing. Nor are these inconveniences. But I am saying all clouds have silver linings, including this one.
 
We shut down all our "non-essential” noise, and in the expensive, expansive quiet we get to hear ourselves think. We've begun to ask: “What is the ‘normal' we want to get back to?” Is it the normal that was depleting Earth’s resources and our lives? Or was normal better in earlier times, when slicked-back hair and saddle-shoed feet danced to a feel-good beat and spent its innocence by the dashboard light? Is nostalgia calling us back to one normal? Or, can it be we are dancing into a brighter future and a new normal?
 
Ah, but there’s the rub: There really is no such thing as this elusive "normal." Instead, we get our own once-in-a-lifetime, birthright view to a world as we would have it. Perhaps in that vastness we will see the value in making kindness routine and resource-responsibility cool. Perhaps we will come to a new way of living where sharing is commonplace and love is the norm. Imagine. 

Until then, my friends, carry the flame.

Peace,
Rev. Roger