There’s Nothing Normal About This

Last week, I took issue with the word “failure” and what I perceive as its common misuse.

This week, I’m peeved over a phrase that has become synonymous with this pandemic era: the new normal.

I too am guilty of using it. But as the world, and my city of Toronto, has started to reopen, and I’ve started expanding my footprint beyond my own sofa and corner store, it’s clear to me that there is nothing normal about how we’re living right now.

Let me be clear, I respect and appreciate that there are measures in place to support and protect us. And whether I like them or not (mostly not), I’m able to accept them as the current state of affairs. But I think we’re doing ourselves a disservice by defining this as the new normal.

I’m certain most would agree that nobody would like this to become business as usual (unless you have a face mask fetish, in which case, you be you!). But calling this, or any situation that takes us out of our happy and healthy state, as normal, can lead us to accept a situation as is, rather than staying alert and focused on bettering it and/or ourselves.

I’ve known too many people (myself included) who get too comfortable in unhealthy or unsatisfying situations. Whether that’s a relationship, a job, or even a daily routine, we sometimes get so used to something that we accept it as normal. It’s like living with a limp, or other chronic pain. It’s just there so we learn to live with it. 

But we need to be careful about what we get used to. If you think you’re supposed to hate work, you’re in the wrong job. If you’ve accepted a loveless or sexless marriage, you’re with the wrong partner. And if you’ve decided working out is never fun, you’re doing the wrong type of exercise. 

So right now we might be donning our masks, and keeping our distance, but we don’t have to like it, or accept it as the new normal. It is what it is. For now. But I challenge you to look around and examine what else you’re masking and ask yourself if it’s actually making you sicker? If so, it may be time to look for your abnormal.