I Wanna Get Back to Normal

I miss life as we knew it. I want us to get back to that. We all feel that way. A return to normalcy just seems like what the doctor ordered.

We know better. We all do. We still want what we want. It is tough having to adjust to a reality we don't really understand and never prepared to face.

I want to get everyone back together at church on Sunday. It would feel like an emotional release of pent up frustration. We would gather afterwards in the fellowship hall for a shared meal. People would stick around and play table games, talk, catch up with one another, and feel really connected for the first time in a long time.

Oh, we would be having the time of our lives! Literally. Two weeks later, I would likely be calling everybody back together for one or more memorial services. Then we would kick ourselves for allowing our emotional angst to guide our actions. We would burrow deeper into the guilt superimposed on the grief with which we have been struggling over the last month or more.

We still want those community gatherings. We still want the normalcy of routine, freedom of movement, social interaction, and being physically together as the local expression of the body of Christ here in the Wingate area. We just can't have everything we want. Just like we have told our children and grandchildren over the years. "You can't always have your druthers."

We can sit apart from one another at church! Well, that might work at Midway. Smyrna would be at capacity with 4 families all sitting eight pews apart. Wingate would also be at capacity at 4 families. The experts are telling us the Covid19 virus can travel 27 feet indoors. The AC system also spreads virus, so we would need to keep it turned off. Singing aerosolizes the virus, so we would need to keep that out of the mix in our gathering. Sure, I could preach wearing a mask and require all attendees to wear them. That would reduce viral spread. We could all enter and depart from separate doorways. We could open up one or two new doors at Smyrna or Midway for that purpose. I just can't see putting my congregation in danger because I suffer from nostalgia for the routines of two months ago.

On the other hand, most of us would be relatively safe if we were to gather again. We just don't know which ones of us. Given some time, we could get hold of testing kits to see whom we might clear to enter the sanctuary. In a few more months, we might be able to test for antibodies. The jury is still out on whether one actually can become immune to this virus by recovering from symptoms. We'll know more after a while has passed and more studies are completed. So, would we then keep a list of who is allowed and who is not allowed to gather? How would those we disallow feel at being excluded? Do we gather the infected and recovered at one hour and then try to disinfect for the uninfected to come at a different time?

Perhaps we might justify gathering again with a host of precautions. We can stop using hymnals, especially if we are not going to sing together. We can wipe down all surfaces. We can limit the number of people in the building. We can keep the AC off, though that might mean maintenance to allow windows to be opened. We can all keep our distance, wear masks, install hand-washing stations at all entrances, and find other solutions to limit the spread of the virus.

Maybe someone will develop a UV system that can cleanse an AC unit internally. I've heard that UV light can and cannot neutralize the virus. If it does, maybe we can figure out a way to cleanse our hands and clothing as we enter the sanctuary and fellowship hall without giving us all skin cancer in return. Perhaps aerosolized hydrogen peroxide can somehow be used to perform that function.

In the meantime, none of that is practical. We just don't have appropriate solutions to the pandemic we are facing other than physical distance to halt viral spread. We do not have effective medical treatments. We are finding that hydroxychloroquine is actually harmful to Covid19 patients, though some promoted it as an effective cure. We are hearing there may be blood clotting issues underlying the disease. We will likely hear something else new by month's end. We still just don't know how to treat it effectively. We do not have a vaccine. We don't know what to do with people who are infected, asymptomatic, but contagious, anyway.

As much as we might want to revert to life as we knew it in the days before this pandemic, the wise thing to do is wait.

As the Quik rabbit told us long ago, "Patience is a virtue. Good things come to those who wait." Also like the same rabbit, we don't want to wait.

I'm just as impatient as the next person. I want normalcy. I want life to be the known quantity I thought I knew.

It is not.

That ship sailed. We must live in the reality around us. We can't go back. We can't turn back time. The lives of our friends, neighbors, healthcare workers, grocery clerks, cashiers, delivery persons, meat packers, farm hands, toilet paper manufacturers, and emergency responders are too valuable for us to ignore or treat as disposable commodities for the sake of our convenience.

So, we will stay home. We will plant gardens. We will call one another. We will stay in touch electronically. We will refill our Blessings Box. We will be patient with a community experiencing grief on a large scale. We will check on our loved ones. We will send them cards and letters. We will wait for guidance coming from the experts telling us when appropriate treatment, supplies, vaccines, and the like are available. We will encourage one another as we await that coming day. When it arrives, we will rejoice greatly. We will step together into the new world before us, adapting to its new realities.

Life will never again quite be like it was. It will, however, be good. We will get there together. Together we will greet the new day, lifting our voices in chorus and praise at the dawn of a new normal. It will be our new normal for as long as it lasts, and in that we will rejoice.

— ©Copyright 2020, Christopher B. Harbin

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