What is this?

What is "normal"?

We've been hearing a lot lately about the "New Normal" or, "getting back to 'normal' "? Just what does "normal" mean? I concluded "normal" simply means living a life unencumbered by the ideas and expectations of those we desire to not have an influence over us. We often are presented with many opinions and ideas that we can either accept or reject that can mold our own opinions or worldview. In most cases, we get to choose what we not only want to believe but decide to also adopt as our own beliefs. 

For example, today I would like to go to the grocery store and pick up this week's groceries because it's what I "normally" do on Tuesdays at 10a. Why? Well, I believe Tuesday is a slower day at the market (less crowds), especially at 10a and it's a day that that allows for a successful week of preparing meals all the way through until the next Tuesday rolls around. I make that choice based on my observations and beliefs and worldview. This is "normal" for me.

Now a "new Normal" is a phenomenon that occurs when other data is introduced to my equation and I have to make an adjustment to my decisions. For some unexplained reason, 10a is no longer a less crowded time of the day on Tuesday to go to the grocery store. It's simple right, I want to still have less traffic at the grocery aisle I simply adjust what time of day I go until I find that perfect time where it's a bit less crowded. Maybe not as optimum as the time before, or it might actually be better than before. But my "new normal". I've decided based on the best information I can find.

Enter the Pandemic and all this talk about a "new normal". If I apply all my thoughts and beliefs about how to find that new normal during this pandemic, I might be able to navigate, over a bit of time, to successfully find that "new normal". There is a difference this time, however. I don't have all the data available to me. What data I do have I may not trust or feel is credible. My options are limited to a few and perhaps worst, I'm told I don't have options but the one I am given, again by a source I may not trust or believe is credible. 

You see "normal" to me is a state where I can decide given, or discovering, a selection of data my actions. It's based on the freedom to choose and decide for myself what is best, as long as it doesn't truly encumber my fellow neighbor's actions and freedoms. It might influence, but they would have the freedom to choose to be influenced or not. 

This "new normal" being proclaimed is not normal at all. It's not even new. When someone says (a presumed "authority") you can only grocery shop at 2p on Thursdays in the interest of public safety, all of a sudden my normal is disrupted. It's not even my normal anymore, it's an edict as to how I'm supposed to behave. It's someone telling me what is normal and how I should behave. Could that be the beginning of despotism? Certainly not freedom. It's an erosion of freedom hidden by a veil of "public safety or the "best interest of all". It's not "new". This has been done before. Mankind wanting to rule over its fellow man. 

Normal and freedom seem to go hand in hand. When a "new normal" is proclaimed rather than found by personal discovery, it's tyranny. 

Give me the real "normal". It leads to freedom. Freedom to do what is right for me and for my fellow citizen. This "new normal" I believe, will lead to something abnormal and filled with bondage. Both that we will find regrettable if we don't push back to regain what is normal.