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PART 1: Why are we planning to go back to “normal” anyway?

Let’s begin

This evening I spoke to a friend of mine and it was an enjoyable chat. We’ve worked in the same industry for a number of years and we see each other about once every year. What I’ve realised is that our friendship is something that builds each of us as our conversations always include that element of opportunity and the possibilities that are out there. It’s so relevant in the current environment.

What struck me was when he said we are six or seven weeks in since the lockdown started and how WWII lasted 5 or 6 years. The NHS amongst other positive things was formed after WWII. The body on the frontline fighting against Coronavirus in the UK today. We want Covid-19 gone but the aftermath cannot allow the people who have died, loved ones and everybody affected by this a world not better than it was. But what is better?

It’s really early days in the fallout from Coronavirus yet I feel there are a few camps forming on the uncertainty of the future. The future we were privileged to think about in the west. So, what are we thinking?

The normal-ists

Coronavirus and the normal
Photo by Lucas Lima from Pexels

All around from the work environment to friends there is a movement of getting back to normal. When will the lockdown end so we can go back to normal? What does this mean? In short its to get back to how things were before coronavirus. Do you remember?

The new-normal-ists

Coronavirus is not normal or is it
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Things will not be the same post Coronavirus. We will find a way to develop a new normal to do the things we always did but with things like social distancing as a core measure across every thing we do. We will wear masks on public transport. After a few months of this terrible virus there is still an urge to square peg into a circle the normality into a new-normal.

The new-por-tunists

Opportunity and coronavirus
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I don’t like the label I’ve made up but I could not think up another term at this point. Those who think and want a new-new. You could use romanticists, idealists or many other terms but this is the camp that looks upon what has hits us as an attack on the way we live and its taken away the most vulnerable in society health-wise.

The people who have looked at this from a spiritual, earth organism, environmental way. Basically a wake up call to realise playing God simply has not worked. The earth has responded in a vicious way because the normal was indeed brutal in many ways and hurt this planet. It hurt us and we are part of the earth. So can we even take a peak of what this opportunity may look like or the journey towards this:

The areas of life

Photo by David Alberto Carmona Coto from Pexels

I’ve gone back and re-worked this article because I wanted to create a few posts as it was getting rather long. To address different areas in a bit more depth. Currently I have education, family, health, work, travel, social and community. I’m sure there will be more. Until my next post, have a think about these things.

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