#56 | Normal

Everything seems permanent, then it isn't, and then it is again.

We adjust to (and justify) new normals very fast. Everything seems permanent, then it isn't, and then it is again.

For example, I'm still surprised how fast we normalise extreme life changes. Today, it's face masks or working with colleagues but not meeting them. Covid continues to be a tragedy beyond anything I've experienced. But it no longer feels crazy: It's pretty common to get tested or swabbed or isolated or avoided in a supermarket aisle. 

A friend of mine had a rough time. She was hospitalised for six weeks but told me how normal her experience in the hospital began to feel. (She quoted Nietzsche: "Whoever has a why to live can bear almost any how.")

Lockdowns (that I agree with, for lack of great alternatives) were the fantasy of closed states. But today, even liberal democracies drop them without referenda, and lockdowns are accepted. In countries with no furlow and young populations without savings, people endure them. 

So, it's worth bearing in mind our intrinsic resilience when disruption confronts us—good or bad. The immediate stench of big-change will pass for most: It will feel quite normal within months and then on into years. It will seem as if there was no other way. (Think of the counterfactual: What would you be doing in another life?).

Our resilience is as true with pandemics as with career changes or most anything else. As Tolstoy put it, "True life is lived when tiny changes occur." And we can weather those changes, no matter how large, better than we expect.

Live well, 

H