The “New Normal”

I have been fascinated by the language used that has eventually become normalised through the COVID-19 crisis. Words are fascinating.

Each year the big players in the Dictionary world choose a word of the year. In 2019, Oxford awarded the term ‘climate emergency’, Macquarie went for ‘robodebt’ and Webster opted to name ‘they’ as their word of the year, acknowledging its gender neutrality. I agree Webster was a little underwhelming in their choice and Oxford should know better than to award a pair of words.

I for one, did not expect to have the following words roll off my tongue so easily and readily in 2020. We all now love a bit of ‘social distancing’, a number of us have been or know someone who has been told to ‘unmute’, we all long for a ‘Post-COVID’ society while reminiscing of ‘Pre-COVID’ freedoms, and googling as a verb is now playing second fiddle to ‘zooming’. I even heard a Principal describe their community as moving from white and blue collar to ‘new collar’ through this crisis. Which must be a good thing if they can still afford to buy shirts??

I do wonder what a new normal will look like for living and working in a Post-COVID Queensland. Will we ever go back to shaking hands? Will people ever feel comfortable with other people encroaching on their 1.5m exclusion zone? Will workplaces in high-rise buildings remain the preferred choice for businesses? And will coming to work or school with a sniffle and suffering in silence remain a ‘badge of honour’ to some or socially unacceptable behaviour to all?

While the future undoubtedly will be new, other things remain the same. God’s undeserved, yet unconditional and unending love are His promise to me and you. His WORD, the Word of God is the only Word we need to know for living in a Post-COVID world.

Blessings to you all as I return to a bit of ‘iso’ to rub a bit of ‘sanny’ into my hands.

Stay healthy!

Dennis