Sitting in a cafe enjoying a coffee and something to eat, I happened across the room to a family.
The mum was seated next to their young male child of about 11/12 years of age and it was clear from the way she looked at him, she adored him. He was indulged to be a child, act as a child and eat like one too with a combination of fingers and a fork held like a stabbing implement.
Sadly he could only eat one handed as his other one was wrapped firmly around a phone and he was playing a game whilst he ate. His stabbing hand would come up at regular intervals and with the fork dangerously wafting in the air he adjusted whatever it was on the phone he was engrossed by.
He wasn't concentrating on the chips he was eating, only when he realised the tomato sauce had run out on the plate did he put down the phone and squirt out a mound of the red stuff for further dunking.
As his concentration was not on the plate, his fingers or his fork, it became noticeable how often his fingers ended up in his mouth as he sucked off the excess ketchup. During this activity his eyes never left the phone, nor did it put down the fork.
His mother indulgently looked on, smoothing his hair lovingly with one hand holding her index finger and thumb in the air, only to return to her own finger eating habits.
Me? I had been brought up to be able to employ (and expected, especially in public) a knife, fork, spoon and other articles of feeding myself with a degree of accuracy. I had also been brought up to respect the food and the person who had cooked it for me so appreciated it by paying it attention. I learned to savour the flavours and was never embarrassed to eat in top line restaurants along with others who had been taught table-etiquette.
That was/is my normal and those I chose to go out and eat with have similar skills to mine. I must admit someone who ate as that child did would not be welcome at my table but that is not my normal, mine wouldn't be theirs and may not be yours.
So what is normal?
I watch little TV, I couldn't tell you what is happening in any soap operas as I am too engrossed in living my own. I don't watch reality shows, game shows and I only play certain types of games. I don't own a gaming box, don't subscribe to Netflix but do have Spotify and Prime.
I travel, walk (well wander these days), garden, draw, paint, write Blogs and study aspects of Quantum Physics, water colour and the gut. I support about 8 charities with monthly donations and the expectation that whatever money is left after I die goes to charities already indicated in my will.
That's my normal. It won't be yours. In fact there are no two people who will have the same 'normal', each one will be slightly different, all chosen specifically by that family or person.
So, when we use the phrase, "when will things get back to normal?" what do we mean by that? Go back to the way it was? I never does, nothing goes backwards (only a car with a dodgy handbrake), it can only go forwards.
So next time you find yourself making the comment out loud or in your head,
"that isn't normal.."
"you call that normal?"
"I just need to get back to normal"
or any of the other comments said about this fictitious normal, think again, the old normal has died, we are now living a very different normal because now we have hindsight about the normal we once had.
Think about it.