The new normal isn’t normal

 I’ve been struggling to get my head around the new normal. I don’t want a new normal. I want the old normal. The new normal isn’t normal and I’m feeling quite toddlerish about it. See, if you say normal often enough it isn’t normal, it’s odd.

Over the last year, so many of us have adapted and cobbled something together to keep things going. I’ve taught flute lessons on Zoom, where the pupil is upside down, refuses to come on camera, the sound has disappeared, and I’ve just not been able to write on their book.

“That’s an A,” I say, “write it underneath.”

But they can’t find a pencil or because of the time lag they write it under the wrong note.

How can you teach a sound based lesson when you can’t play together or actually properly hear each other? The answer is that you can’t but we have. People ave been doing so many things that aren’t really working for them but they’ve done them happily without complaining because it’s a global pandemic.

Some employers will try to take advantage of that. They might close offices and put everyone on a permanent working from home contract (think of the savings), they might expect that the things you’ve been doing to help out are things you’d be happy to carry on with. (This is unlikely to happen to me, as a child in my RE lesson said, “We’re all going to go home and have nightmares now.”). They might expect you to keep a distance and never talk to your colleagues again.

I don’t want to wear a mask at the theatre or be misted with disinfectant on entry. I don’t want the new normal.

Sometimes when I’m teaching on Zoom it freezes. Who would have guessed that shouting “You’ve frozen,” into the void would be an every day occurrence we would all accept? 

Personally, I’ve struggled with motivation towards the new normal. I haven’t been one of those musicians flooding YouTube with my songs or organising or joining virtual choirs. I haven’t had virtual parties with my friends or joined online escape rooms. If I can’t do it normally, then it turns out I’m not interested and I’d much rather read a book, which is possible to do without any adaptation in behaviour. Maybe it’s because I’m old. Maybe it’s because I’ve been through some stuff before all this struck. Maybe it’s just because. However, whatever the reason, I feel like I’ve really lost my mojo. I’m like the frozen Zoom screen.

Sometimes when a virtual flute lesson unfreezes all the notes play in quick succession, making for a hilarious rendition of whatever piece has been played. If you’ve never heard Old Macdonald (with random B flats) at top speed then......well, then you’re lucky.

I worry that if the word ever does go back to normal normal, rather than the new normal then I will be like the frozen zoom screen and try to catch up on everything at once and that would not only be not normal but it would be exhausting.

I know I’ve said normal too many times. Apologies. You shouldn’t have to read this rubbish.