Maybe you’ve heard it too: I look forward to getting back to normal.
As for me, I’m not sure I want to go “back” or if we even can.
This pandemic has changed the whole landscape of our world personally, locally and globally.
When we evaluate all that has happened during the pandemic, we’ll find that loved ones and neighbors have been taken. Students’ education have been impacted. Jobs have been lost. Businesses have been closed and many will not open again. While isolating, all of our mental health has been challenged. On an up note, government agencies have learned to cooperate (to a certain extent). Some of us have gotten stimulus checks. The kind and generous side of many individuals and organizations have been exposed.
But now what?
I’d like to see our kind and generous sides expressed through our governments, corporations and other systems to continue, but more robustly.
Here’s my friend and colleague Carolyn Potts thoughts on the subject:
The new normal should not be a return to unconscious capitalism.
A rebooting of our values and priorities.
Mother Nature has said, "OK. You kids have really been misbehaving. I’ve warned you several times. But now I see that it’s time for a global ‘time-out’ to think about what you’ve been doing to our shared home. I’ll let you back out when you have demonstrated a commitment to share responsibility to clean up the mess that’s been made and that you’re ready to take responsibility for keeping our shared home in a healthier cleaner state."
…and this in from my co-conspirator, Chicago firefighter Cat Renar:
I have come to discover that there are visionaries for different aspects of our culture and times. You’ll see where I’m going, hopefully…eventually ;-)
For example, the geniuses that lead the way for the internet and how it changed the world. I was in marketing at the time the ‘web’ was forming, and one of my last projects I was tasked with was to create a website for my company. At that time, I couldn’t grasp the need for it or where this would go – and this from an educated, relatively computer literate and somewhat intelligent person! Fortunately, I changed careers shortly after and never completed that project, but I look back and am simply stunned by how much an important and integral part of our lives it is now, I am always awed by the visionaries that saw what was needed and lead the way.
Six years later, another world/life altering event occurred. This one wasn’t gradual like the first, but just as earthshaking: 9/11.
Fully entrenched in my new career as a firefighter/paramedic, I saw first hand the effects and repercussions of that devastating day. There were visionaries during that time too. Those who knew intrinsically what had happened and what needed to be done. They were both civic leaders and common folk. An example, my fire department had a large caravan of top notch fire and rescue personnel in route to NYC the next morning to help. I also recall how then Mayor of NYC Rudy Giuliani (!) deftly handled the incident. (Yes, I said THAT.) I remember the way the nation came together in unity, the way neighbors helped one another. That lasted for a while. And that is what I imagine true patriotism to mean.
Fast forward another 19 years. we are faced with another life/world altering event. The pandemic we have been hearing rumblings about for quite some time and ignored, has hit and hit hard. While we are still reeling from its effects, I realize there will be visionaries that lead us through this too. Experts that recognize what we need to move past…be it the testing, infrastructure or simply leadership that has to happen. Sadly, and I suppose cynically, I fear there will be major hurdles to get past. Poor leadership has not helped. Fear is overwhelming sensibilities and the coming together that occurred after 9/11 hasn’t happened…yet. But I suppose that’s because we’re still in its thrall.
So, what should the new normal include? More visionaries taking the lead. Time will tell.
Brené Brown summed up what I believe should happen: “This pandemic experience is a massive experiment is collective vulnerability. We can be our worst selves when we are afraid, or our very best, bravest selves. In the context of fear and vulnerability, there is often very little in between, because when we are uncertain and afraid our default is self protection. We don’t have to be scary when we’re scared. Let’s choose awkward, brave and kind. And let’s chose each other."
…and my friend and neighbor Jeremy Pardoe:
I hope for a world that is more realistic and compassionate: a world where we don't count on our individual good fortune as an entitlement, but see it as a blessing to be generously shared.
I hope for a world where employers, now forced to consider the collective welfare of their employees as a condition of their own survival, will see the advantage of standing by them through the smaller, lonelier crises in their lives.
I hope for a world where we stand in solidarity with the marginal and dispossessed - the imprisoned, the homeless, the mentally ill, and the physically disabled - recognizing that dispossession is a natural condition of life.
I hope for a world where distance brings us together. As we learn to keep friends close despite physical separation, we will come to see every stranger as a potential friend.
I hope that the world feels smaller: that we are more engaged with the human struggles of all our fellow world citizens.
I hope that we achieve a proper sense of the fragility of our existence, and of the terrible strain we put on the natural world.
I hope that we learn to be content with less.
I hope that we develop the collective resilience to deal with the storms that are coming, bending like a willow, not crashing like an oak.
I hope that our children will continue to have faith in the generosity of the universe.
As for me, I’m not sure I want to go “back” or if we even can.
This pandemic has changed the whole landscape of our world personally, locally and globally.
When we evaluate all that has happened during the pandemic, we’ll find that loved ones and neighbors have been taken. Students’ education have been impacted. Jobs have been lost. Businesses have been closed and many will not open again. While isolating, all of our mental health has been challenged. On an up note, government agencies have learned to cooperate (to a certain extent). Some of us have gotten stimulus checks. The kind and generous side of many individuals and organizations have been exposed.
But now what?
I’d like to see our kind and generous sides expressed through our governments, corporations and other systems to continue, but more robustly.
Here’s my friend and colleague Carolyn Potts thoughts on the subject:
A rebooting of our values and priorities.
Mother Nature has said, "OK. You kids have really been misbehaving. I’ve warned you several times. But now I see that it’s time for a global ‘time-out’ to think about what you’ve been doing to our shared home. I’ll let you back out when you have demonstrated a commitment to share responsibility to clean up the mess that’s been made and that you’re ready to take responsibility for keeping our shared home in a healthier cleaner state."
…and this in from my co-conspirator, Chicago firefighter Cat Renar:
I have come to discover that there are visionaries for different aspects of our culture and times. You’ll see where I’m going, hopefully…eventually ;-)
For example, the geniuses that lead the way for the internet and how it changed the world. I was in marketing at the time the ‘web’ was forming, and one of my last projects I was tasked with was to create a website for my company. At that time, I couldn’t grasp the need for it or where this would go – and this from an educated, relatively computer literate and somewhat intelligent person! Fortunately, I changed careers shortly after and never completed that project, but I look back and am simply stunned by how much an important and integral part of our lives it is now, I am always awed by the visionaries that saw what was needed and lead the way.
Six years later, another world/life altering event occurred. This one wasn’t gradual like the first, but just as earthshaking: 9/11. Fully entrenched in my new career as a firefighter/paramedic, I saw first hand the effects and repercussions of that devastating day. There were visionaries during that time too. Those who knew intrinsically what had happened and what needed to be done. They were both civic leaders and common folk. An example, my fire department had a large caravan of top notch fire and rescue personnel in route to NYC the next morning to help. I also recall how then Mayor of NYC Rudy Giuliani (!) deftly handled the incident. (Yes, I said THAT.) I remember the way the nation came together in unity, the way neighbors helped one another. That lasted for a while. And that is what I imagine true patriotism to mean.
Fast forward another 19 years. we are faced with another life/world altering event. The pandemic we have been hearing rumblings about for quite some time and ignored, has hit and hit hard. While we are still reeling from its effects, I realize there will be visionaries that lead us through this too. Experts that recognize what we need to move past…be it the testing, infrastructure or simply leadership that has to happen. Sadly, and I suppose cynically, I fear there will be major hurdles to get past. Poor leadership has not helped. Fear is overwhelming sensibilities and the coming together that occurred after 9/11 hasn’t happened…yet. But I suppose that’s because we’re still in its thrall.
So, what should the new normal include? More visionaries taking the lead. Time will tell.
Brené Brown summed up what I believe should happen: “This pandemic experience is a massive experiment is collective vulnerability. We can be our worst selves when we are afraid, or our very best, bravest selves. In the context of fear and vulnerability, there is often very little in between, because when we are uncertain and afraid our default is self protection. We don’t have to be scary when we’re scared. Let’s choose awkward, brave and kind. And let’s chose each other."
…and my friend and neighbor Jeremy Pardoe:
I hope for a world where employers, now forced to consider the collective welfare of their employees as a condition of their own survival, will see the advantage of standing by them through the smaller, lonelier crises in their lives.
I hope for a world where we stand in solidarity with the marginal and dispossessed - the imprisoned, the homeless, the mentally ill, and the physically disabled - recognizing that dispossession is a natural condition of life.
I hope for a world where distance brings us together. As we learn to keep friends close despite physical separation, we will come to see every stranger as a potential friend.
I hope that the world feels smaller: that we are more engaged with the human struggles of all our fellow world citizens.
I hope that we achieve a proper sense of the fragility of our existence, and of the terrible strain we put on the natural world.
I hope that we learn to be content with less.
I hope that we develop the collective resilience to deal with the storms that are coming, bending like a willow, not crashing like an oak.
I hope that our children will continue to have faith in the generosity of the universe.
✿*•.¸¸.•*✿*•.¸¸.•*✿*•.¸¸.•*✿
