The New Normal - Jan 2 2022

 

The New Normal

Jan 2 2022

The new normal

comes up a lot these days.

As if there ever was

an old one,

when little changed

and we weren't anxious about what's coming.

As if the past was all that great.

As if memory was unflawed

and not filtered through nostalgia.

Don't forget

that without change, we're dead.

We grow.

Cells turn over.

DNA breaks,

and those mistakes

drive evolution.

Unfulfilled lives

on an unsustainable planet

divided by wealth, geography, race.

What's not to change?

And anyway, there is no "normal";

we are all damaged, somehow,

odd, insecure, disabled

despite the brave facade.

I hate change more than most

always have.

But I am old, and set in my ways.

So I'm sure I'll be stubborn,

will grumble, rage, resist

when I should be supple and receptive,

embracing change

like a kid who can't wait for Christmas.

Still, I hope it's for the better,

as we always assume

something new will be;

wrapped and beribboned

in its original box,

with "new and improved"

embossed in bold.

A future we didn’t expect,

and never could have imagined

the one we'd want.

I wrote this because of exactly what the first stanza says. In some, these two words evoke the fear of change. But in others, I imagine, they represent hope. Either way, built in is the presumption that things will reach a new equilibrium; that change will happen, then stop, settling in some new place. I wonder, though, if the process of change might become irreversible: that we reach a tipping point, where change feeds change in a positive feedback loop. A vicious cycle? Or a virtuous circle?

I also wrote this as an antidote to my bleak deep-seated pessimism. Unfortunately, that didn’t work! So the poem feels somewhat inauthentic to me: I'm clearly more of a death spiral guy than virtuous circle type.

I know many things need to drastically change. But I fear it's happening in the wrong direction (a drift toward authoritarianism, illiberalism, polarization, and denial of fact-based reality), and not happening where it needs to most (the climate emergency, wealth inequality).