ABNORMAL is not normal, so in deference to the abnormality of the times – “epochal change and challenges,” quoting Pope Francis –the term is “the new normal.”
What does the new normal mean to most of us, anyway?
To a 55-year-old mother of two teenagers, it means “no big events with big crowds, such as concerts and parties. No mask, no going out. No traveling until a vaccine has been found.”
To an academic who spends hours communicating via phone and computer: “I won’t be watching movies in a theater unless we’re seated three chairs apart to the le and the right. Will I like that? That, or more Netflix at home. (Even Netflix will sooner or later run out of content!) Public transport will carry passengers at a third of the usual capacity. I think I’ll buy a bike and take advantage of the cleaner air and bluer skies.
“With physical distancing, schools will be forced to build bigger and more rooms, hire more teachers. No more seminars, workshops, retreats, field trips, faculty and staff meetings, conferences, etc.”
I foresee the food catering business taking a hit. How’s life going to be normal again for my home-service masseuse? How’s life for me without her muscle-kneading, tenderizing magic? Alcohol will replace lotion and perfume in portable sizes. Malling will never be the same. What will happen to the entertainment industry when shooting and taping skeds are on hold until July, at the earliest? Mass dislocation for producers and actors, mass withdrawal symptoms and weaning (and keening!) for their fans en masse. How will TV series like Hallmark romances, rated A-OK for innocent family viewing, shoot their scenes of pristine lakes and meadows through the prism of rainbows and springtime joy? How will Cardo Dalisay end the Probinsiyano’s Herculean labors? By accidentally discovering the cure for CoVid-19, thereby becoming hero of the decade?
Z, astrologer and fan of Chinese movies and K-dramas, doesn’t need an ephemeris to see “shopping for food and basic goods done online and messenger services to pay bills and buy meds.” People will spend “more time for texting, email, video calls. Time for 5G. With social distancing, people need not interact with other humans, machines will do. Mind you, all this is just a preview.”
