All week I’ve been staring at an empty canvas. Typically, I’m overflowing with ideas for content for this column but not this week. No, I usually find inspiration in the simple things, or those things that bring me joy. It creates an environment that inspires humor and positivity but this week all I can seem to think about are those things that don’t. What a downer! It’s really not my style and for that I apologize. Listen to me, I sound like a country song.
I should say it started Sunday when I watched my favorite football team (who I can’t get rid of and I won’t name out of embarrassment) lose again. Taking them to a whopping 0-3 record on the season but that’s not when it started. No, it started Monday morning when my 10 year old son woke up with a cold. My wife and I just looked at each other and knew we couldn’t let him go to school. In any other year we would load him up with some cough drops, a scoop of cough syrup and send him on his way, but not right now. I called the school to report his absence. “He’s not feeling well today, he won’t be in.” Followed by the immediate response of “what are his symptoms?” I mean, I knew that was coming. “It’s just a little cough, we will monitor it and keep you posted.” I think it was the school nurse or whoever the school system has assigned the role of “Covid Tracing Czar” who called my wife back to let us know we needed not only to get a negative test back for him, but we would also need to pull our daughter out of middle school immediately. Let me spare you from how that story unfolded. Let’s just say she was pissed. That was only Monday and to be completely transparent with you, I knew for a fact it wasn’t COVID…and it wasn’t. Test came back negative and everyone is back in school and doing great.
But that was just the start of the week. The week got much worse (Take Tuesday night for example) but I won’t go there. This podcast was never intended to go there however, that did get the idea train rolling again. Somewhere between a thought of something none of us can agree on and something we can all agree on-the empty canvas I was staring at began to fill up with ideas.
The idea of what is normal and what isn’t normal started popping in my head. Think about how all of our lives have been affected by this pandemic and instead of all the negativity try and really focus on the positive. You may have to dig deep but there’s a few things underneath the surface that are obvious. First of all my marriage flourished. For the first time in a decade I’m fairly certain my wife and I were completely on the same page. Not like we weren’t before, but now we are qualified for “The Amazing Race” because we can function like a winning team. Our family is closer than ever. We have spent more time at home as a family around the dinner table than ever before. Not only do I better understand who my kids are, I understand what motivates them and how they feel about stuff. We’ve gotten closer with our closest friends. We’ve had sit-down dinners with huge spreads of food and conversations about deep meaningful topics. We’ve gone on bike rides and walks, spent time outside playing catch. I never thought that I would ever feel normal again. Only thing is, I was feeling the normal I was looking for 10 years ago. I was telling a friend recently that 2020 has had a real 1998 vibe to it.
Then there are things that aren’t normal. Take calling in sick for your son as an example, or watching an NFL football game without fans in the stadium. How about attending church service virtually for six months, or wearing a mask in public. I remember seeing those people when I was kid and thinking, “what a weirdo!” Now, everyone wears a mask. Well, technically not everyone and in some cases we get judged for it which has become sort of normal but has led me to this conclusion. What is normal and even more importantly when things do go back to normal, will we even recognize it?
