Something I have
decided, and have not really shared with anyone, but have started living my
life in this way, and that is, to think that calling this our new normal is the
pragmatic thing to do. We do not know
if, when and how this will end. We do
not know what things will look like on
the other end. We do know we will never
go back 100% to the way things were before.
We initially kidded ourselves, with the help from some national leadership,
to believe this would be resolved by this summer. And it has not. So when I cannot change things around me,
sometimes I have to decide whether to change my outlook and expectations. This may not work for everybody, especially
someone who is idealistic. But sometimes an idealistic person understands how
important it is to adjust and adapt.
I liken this to
being in a war. Too long ago for my
lifetime, but we hear about the sacrifices and contributions the American
people were asked to make during World War II:
rationing, recycling, women working in jobs that were formerly felt
unfit women, including manufacturing, farming, and other businesses. And, it opened up some integration prospects
previously unthought of. Well, although
people tried to put the genie back in the bottle, women and minorities slowly
expanded their roles after the war, often, with a very tough fight.
We are now
engaged in a multi-front war: The war
against COVID-19. The war against
natural disasters, that are more difficult to deal with because of COVID -19
(wild fires, heat waves, hurricanes, etc.)
The war against social injustice and racism. This always gets worse when the people on the
bottom of the social ladder see possibilities of improvement, and then those
possibilities are snatched away. (A black, inclusive president is replaced by
an anglo, divisive president.) When I
was in college we learned about it as the Revolution of Rising
Expectations. This article https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/revolution-rising-expectations
indicates it may not be that simple, but it plays a part.
The idea is, we
have to change with the change. And the way we change influences the way the
change impacts our world. The actual
quote from Mahatma Gandhi is: “We but
mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found
in the world of our body. If we could
change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the
attitude of the world change towards him.
This is the divine mystery supreme.
A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not
wait to see what others do.” This has
been shortened to “be the change you want to be”
The societal
changes give each of us the opportunity to decide how we will go forward from
here. It is a major burden. Do I have an
answer? No.
So, forgive my
ramble. Thank you for letting me ramble.
Sometimes, I just need to get it off my chest.
And I ask for answers.
