So, when does this all end so we can get back to normal?
That’s the question that’s been on many minds lately. The question has crossed my mind, too, but it’s usually followed by another, more unsettling, question.
What if we aren’t going to get back to “normal?”
What if we are experiencing a sea change, a dramatic, irreversible transformation in society and the way life is lived?
Personally, I think that’s what’s happening.
Although some are still optimistic that the virus and COVID-19 will all magically go away this summer, a lot of people in the know believe otherwise. There are projections that COVID-19 could be a significant problem for at least two years, and that it could become a seasonal issue, like the flu.
So far, no cure has been found. As for a vaccine, despite the optimism that we might have one soon, the distinct possibility exists that one might never even be developed.
In her 1994 book, The Coming Plague, science journalist Laurie Garrett wrote words that at that time probably looked like an overreaction, a Chicken Little crying out that “The sky is falling.” Now, those words seem downright prescient, if not prophetic:
“While the human race battles itself, fighting over ever more crowded turf and scarcer resources, the advantage moves to the microbes’ court. They are our predators and they will be victorious if we, Homo sapiens, do not learn how to live in a rational global village that affords the microbes few opportunities. It’s either that or we brace ourselves for the coming plague.”
My daughter, Charlene, is a dental assistant. She has been off work for the past six weeks, but will go back day after tomorrow. A few days ago she described for me some of the new infection-control procedures they would have to use at the office to protect themselves and their patients.
One thing she said caught my attention. “We have to adjust to a new normal.”
She’s absolutely correct. And unless I miss my guess, that new normal won’t just be for health care professionals. It will be for all of us.
I shouldn’t be asking when we get back to normal.
I should be asking how to live going forward? How do I, as a follower of Jesus, function in a world increasingly defined by COVID-19?
The world is changing whether I like it or not.
By the way, nothing would make me happier than to be proven wrong.
But I don’t think I am.