The New Normal
Mar. 20th, 2020 07:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baronessekatToday is the first full day of Spring. A day signifying birth, new life, hope. But while the air is warm, it's raining and grey. Just like the mood of humanity.
Streets and parking lots are mostly empty. Store shelves are bare of many daily essentials. Companies, businesses, offices all stand dark. When people do come together we stand at least 6 feet apart, concern and anxiety clearly written in our eyes.
People are scared. Is that a cough because they swallowed wrong? Seasonal allergies? Or do they haveIT . Am I going to catch it or will I escape? If I do get it - will I recover or will I become an unfortunate statistic? Will my friends and family catch it? Will they survive or are they going to be relegated to another number in a history textbook?
I mean, I have asthma, a mild heart condition and a tendency to get bronchitis. Many friends are in similar states or worse (immunocompromised, older, etc).)
But I will do what I can. Wash my hands until they are so chapped they are going to bleed. Have an allergic sneezing fit because of the fragrance in the hand sanitizer I keep locked in my desk drawer. Use my carefully horded Clorox wipes and Lysol spray.
But I am still going to work - my company is currently part of an essential industry (we make shipping and labeling supplies and also manufacture medical equipment). So I am earning a paycheck and part of my job is ensuring that the guys in the production stream get paid as well. We have a plan should I need to start working from home, but for now it's "situation normal" for me.
However, going out to be social - something that often was a Herculean effort for me - is now ethically taboo. Plans are changing if not outright being cancelled. Things I was looking forward to are not possible in the current state of things. I remain even more touch starved - just now I am more acutely aware of it because personal space boundaries have to be so much bigger than before.
Slowly the world around us is looking like scenes from Outbreak, The Andromeda Strain or The Omega Man. Only this is not a movie where we get to go have dinner with friends when the lights come back up.
This is the new normal.
I suppose it's a good thing loneliness and I are old friends.
Streets and parking lots are mostly empty. Store shelves are bare of many daily essentials. Companies, businesses, offices all stand dark. When people do come together we stand at least 6 feet apart, concern and anxiety clearly written in our eyes.
People are scared. Is that a cough because they swallowed wrong? Seasonal allergies? Or do they have
I mean, I have asthma, a mild heart condition and a tendency to get bronchitis. Many friends are in similar states or worse (immunocompromised, older, etc).)
But I will do what I can. Wash my hands until they are so chapped they are going to bleed. Have an allergic sneezing fit because of the fragrance in the hand sanitizer I keep locked in my desk drawer. Use my carefully horded Clorox wipes and Lysol spray.
But I am still going to work - my company is currently part of an essential industry (we make shipping and labeling supplies and also manufacture medical equipment). So I am earning a paycheck and part of my job is ensuring that the guys in the production stream get paid as well. We have a plan should I need to start working from home, but for now it's "situation normal" for me.
However, going out to be social - something that often was a Herculean effort for me - is now ethically taboo. Plans are changing if not outright being cancelled. Things I was looking forward to are not possible in the current state of things. I remain even more touch starved - just now I am more acutely aware of it because personal space boundaries have to be so much bigger than before.
Slowly the world around us is looking like scenes from Outbreak, The Andromeda Strain or The Omega Man. Only this is not a movie where we get to go have dinner with friends when the lights come back up.
This is the new normal.
I suppose it's a good thing loneliness and I are old friends.
