I’ve now officially lost track of how often I’ve heard the question: After this crisis is past do you think things will ever be the same? Will we ever get back to normal?
If by normal you mean living as if all of this never happened, then no, of course not. The deed is done. We’ll never again live in a world in which Covid-19 didn’t happen. When, in just the first four months of the year 2020, hundreds of thousands have died and millions have suffered financially in order to save millions more.
Moments in time which forever change us are not new and, ironically, they are not something we can change. I cannot unsee men walking on the moon, or watching Star Wars for the first time, or undo experiencing the birth of my sons, the death of my parents, 9/11, and now Covid-19. It was the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who said, “No man ever steps into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” So, no, after this the world will never go back to “normal.”
But if by “normal” you mean, will we find a new way to be us again, then yes, things will get back to normal because some things never change. This crisis, like every crisis before it, has stirred up human nature, both for good and bad. There have been great acts of kindness, compassion and courage as well as fear, suspicion and great selfishness. Some things never change, even when they should.
So I guess the real question is not if this crisis will change us. It already has. The real question is how it will change us and who will we choose to be? The philosopher Victor Frankel once taught me that between what happens to me and how it changes me there is a space, and in that space is the power to choose my response. Once I understand that power I understood it is not what happens to me that changes me. It is my choices.
I promise you, we will get back to work. We will find a way to pay the bills and teach the kids and gather and embrace and celebrate. The real question is, in the space between now and then, will we choose fear, selfishness and despair, or will we choose to be the best versions of us and continue to build ourselves a beautiful life.