Corona Diaries: What’s Normal to You?
16.11.2020
Lockdown. Boozing. Clap for the NHS. Netflix. Barely suppressed anxiety. Relax lockdown. Eat Out to Help Out. Rising Cases. Rule of Six. Lockdown. Trying to go alcohol-free. Working out. Netflix. No-one suppressing their anxiety anymore.
Here we are again, mid-way through an official lockdown months after we thought we’d be free of this. Well, some of us thought so. Others seemed pessimistic (or sensible?) from the start, anticipating this whole situation would continue far past the initial proposed 12 week period. Either way, I don’t think the majority of people genuinely thought that come November we’d be so far from a return to ‘normality’.
That said, what is normality? What are we actually aiming for? Yes, of course, I appreciate that the news regarding the vaccines is welcome to most people and that ultimately we want to be able to go about our lives without fear, being able to work and see our loved ones. But if I’d asked you in April-May time what ‘back to normal’ meant to you, I wonder if it’d be a different response to the one you’d give now.
I don’t mean that in a cheesy ‘this period in time has taught me what’s really important’ kind of way, although I’m not negating that that’s the experience many people have had lately. I mean more that human beings are naturally good at adapting to a change in situation, that the things we desperately wanted at the start of the first lockdown aren’t necessarily the same things we’d ask for now.
Perhaps for you they are. Perhaps it’s a house full of people, a party where you can indiscriminately share drinks and hug each other. I miss a lot of that too. But I would accept much less. For me, a back to normal I’d think reasonable in the near future would include the ability to walk round bookshops, to go to small-scale theatre shows and eat dinner with 2-4 other people. I’d want the option to use public transport, to attend meetings and take small trips around the UK. I’d like to be able to sit in my parents’ house and accept a cup of coffee without intense fear. I’d like to know that I could accompany family members if they needed medical appointments and vice versa. It’d be nice to be able to offer lifts in my car to friends and family, to travel up North to see my in-laws and to hold friends’ new babies. I’d like to be able to go out without the concern that we won’t be allowed to use the toilet without having to return back home (true story)! I want people to be able to go to hospitals if they need treatments or surgeries without the fear that it’ll be delayed (or virtual).
I still want a lot actually. And there’s a ton more of course. Travelling. Bars. Coffee shops. Restaurants. Swimming pools. Nail salons. Haircuts. West End shows. Broadway. Saying ‘Yes’ when someone offers you a taste of their fancy cocktail or superior starter. Essentially I want the whole thing to go away. I want to not feel an inordinate amount of guilt and fear when I go to the shops or stand too close to somebody. But while a few months ago I expected to get all of that, nowadays I’m prepared to go slower, to enjoy each bit of whatever we call normality nowadays as it returns. And yes, I suppose that cheesy part of me hopes that in doing that we somehow manage to create a better world.