During the first wave of our COVID-19 “shutdown” last year, talking heads on TV spoke with excitement about the “new normal” that would follow our conquest of the new virus. Things would be different, they predicted. We would take less for granted, appreciate each other more, become more environmentally conscious as we drove less, worked from home, enjoyed our families and lived at a more relaxed pace.
Now that the light at the end of the tunnel of conquest seems to be moving further and further into the future, I am beginning to hear less talk of the “new normal.”
It is as if the dream of living in a new, healthier way post-COVID-19 has worn off. Are we just tired of being trapped inside our home, wearing uncomfortable masks when going out, and not being able to see our parents, children, or friends “until we are vaccinated?”
And who know when that will happen? And then there are those “variants” of the virus that will continue to spread, especially among the “anti-vaxxers”?
It seems we may have become like the two characters in Samuel Beckett’s famous play “Waiting for Godot” first performed in 1953. Two men meet under a tree and discover that they are both there to meet a man named Godot. They wait hours, and even come back the next day, but Godot never appears.
“Waiting for Godot” has become a way of saying that we are waiting for something that never happens. Is our “new normal” coming or are we waiting for Godot?
Many of us have heard the phrase “the only constant is change.” As a historian, I can vouch for its truth, despite the widespread misconception that “History repeats itself.” Although the History Channel and human nature do repeat, human history does not! It only often appears that way.
Of course, we do truly crave predictability. We want a world where not everything is “unprecedented,” as we hear so often on the news. We just want it all to stop—and go back to normal, the way things were—or do we, really?
Here are some of the things that were normal before we entered Coronaville:
- a vast economic and cultural gap in America between the very rich whose power seemed endless and the very large number of poor who couldn’t make ends meet;
- two major political parties, both of which often put greed for money and power ahead of governance, and division into hostile camps ahead of “democracy for the people”;
- many people in positions of power at all levels who thought that “the greatest good for the greatest number,” the “common good,” referred to Socialism—even though three states in the USA, including Kentucky, are titled “Commonwealths;”
- millions of stressed-out people educated and uneducated, who felt so ignored by their leaders, so eager for change, and so tired of watching ‘rich people TV commercials’ for things they couldn’t afford that they turned to conspiracy theories to explain their plight;
- a planet experiencing intense rains, huge fires, more violent hurricanes,, warming and rising oceans—all due to climate changes not taken seriously by many of us;
- and of course, a systematic racism or sense of white privilege built into our institutions and our subconscious minds, despite our easy talk about the importance of racial justice;
These are some of the reasons we might not want to return to being normal—new or old.
It is time for some serious rethinking of what we really value It is time to be “abnormally” attentive to each other needs and to those of our planet? Are we really happy with the kind of capitalism and rampant individualism that allows, even encourages, the rich to get richer and the poor poorer? Is money the measure of our worth?
Finally, are we still content to blame “the other guy” (or other political party) for all our problems instead of thinking about and demanding change? We may have taken a small step forward by our votes in the 2020 election?
We can we change our fate or we can just continue waiting for Godot?