How inward transformation can create global healing BY TAYLOR JENNINGS-BROWN • DESIGN BY EMILY SCHOONOVER
During this pause, I have done my fair share of Netflix and chilling, TikTok surfing, Instagram stalking, at-home workouts and whatever else to keep me from being disheartened by all the current pain and confusion in the world. I have also done a lot of thinking and processing. Particularly about the idea of normalcy. A lack of normalcy often causes panic and distress, while too much of it can drive someone mad with mundaneness. When it comes to normalcy, I have also noticed how malleable it can be. I went for a walk the other day for some fresh air and a lady passing by on the sidewalk moved a few feet off of the pavement into the grass to avoid contact. My natural reaction would have been offense just a month ago, but in this new age of COVID-19 and social distancing, her instinctive move was very considerate and much appreciated. After the second passerby almost fell off the curb into the road to avoid breathing the same air as me, it was almost without thinking that I followed suit and moved to the furthest edge of the pavement when passing a third woman on my walk. The same day my mom ordered a pizza and to her initial surprise she opened the door and the pizza was on the ground with no deliverer in sight. She then saw the deliverer off in the distance as she greeted my mom from afar. My mom laughed in light shock but quickly realized that the deliverer was following the new normative code. How quickly our sense of normalcy has changed. We truly are adaptable creatures. Just a little over a week ago I was in disbelief that something like this was happening during my lifetime but now it has slowly become a new normal
68 A NEW NORMAL
and I often wonder if we will ever return to the way life was before or if we even should. For those of us who have the luxury of being healthy and having our primary concern be when we will return to our daily routines, if our summer plans will be canceled or if our expensive vacations will still be possible; our main goal is to return to some form of normalcy. We simply want this to all blow over sooner rather than later because what a great inconvenience it is for us to have to stay in our well-furnished homes, with our fridges full, our lights on and enough money to sustain a decent life even in the face of a shutdown. We want things to be normal. But what is normal? Well, poverty is normal. Systemic racism is normal. Being overly consumed in our own lives is normal. Putting ourselves before everyone and only doing what benefits us is normal. Degrading our collective home and leaving future generations to deal with the costly global repercussions is normal. It is normal in our society to be takers rather than givers. Even our most altruistic deeds serve to placate our guilt from these societal norms. It is normal for world leaders to teach hate and intolerance. And this is what we so badly want to return to. Normal. And then it occurred to me, “what a shame it would be to have gone through all of this chaos to just go back to normal.� I am very uncertain about many things but I certainly hope that transformation would take place globally, but especially here within the United States. I really hope that this forced social distancing, quarantining and shutdowns
