Who decides what’s ‘normal’

A blog by a student social worker @RShirtliffe

Grab yourself a drink before getting into this, it’s not that long but the drink has a purpose…

2020 has been nothing short of a complete and utter write off for a lot of people, across the world not just here in Britain. However, there is a phrase that keeps getting thrown about like we all agree with it, and subconsciously maybe we do. But I don’t think we should. It wasn’t all smiles and love before the pandemic, so maybe the future is where we can actually do something positive and we can stop wishing for the past to come back. So, the phrase can be worded in many different ways but the main one I have seen is, ‘will life ever go back to normal?’…. was ‘normal’ actually that good?

Male suicides were on the rise with no sign of slowing down, poverty was still rife, war was still tearing through numerous countries forcing people to either suffer with nothing or flee with nothing, racism still existed! Inequality still prevented women from professional progression, the environment was being killed by us and someone committed the cardinal sin of messing with cats…. These are just a few of the huge list of issues and problems the world had, and sadly still has. So why would we want to go back to that? Then again, have we actually been stopped from being within that bubble of norm or are we just living in new bubbles within that train wreck of a bubble, so many bubbles.

So why do many people want to go back to the way we were before? Ignorance is bliss, if you can’t see it does it exist? Is one way of looking at it. Until it affects you personally is it really an issue? Seems to be the way most things are dealt with. The world was far from great and it hasn’t got any better recently, which is why instead of wishing for the past to be the present we should actually try and do something to make the future somewhere we want to be. And the normal way of life can stay where it deserves to be, in the past.

Onto the present, there isn’t much to say other than it is a time of unprecedented confusion, anger, hatred for the unknown, aimless blame and fear. It’s a little overwhelming but this is the harsh reality of years of poor leadership, terrible acts and ill treatments coming to the surface all needing answers. And it won’t be letting up anytime soon because the answers are not coming and when they do, they’re cryptic or vague. So, buckle in peeps, this year might almost be over but the animosity that it has delivered is here to stay for a while, unless we recreate a new ‘normal’.

Keyboard warriors, rioters, protesters, politicians, teachers, nurses, key workers, parents and anyone who isn’t of those mentioned but gives a damn, stop waiting for others to do the dirty work for you and start making a difference now. If that means little things like being nice to more people, then do it. Behaviour breeds behaviour.

Grab that drink and lets toast to being normal.

Cheers