We are ready to begin a new year. This Saturday will mark the beginning of the year 2022. It’s hard to believe it is here.
We will have a midterm election for Congress. The Winter Olympics are coming in a few months. Hopefully, things will begin to return to typical activities soon this year. Notice that I didn’t say normal because I don’t know what the definition of that is.
Meteorologically, it’s an average of the previous 30-year period from 1980-2010. So that definition changes every decade, so what doesn’t seem normal now will technically be included in the definition of normal in the future.
Maybe that’s the thing with normal. It’s a moving target depending on what has happened. Before Columbine in 1999, it didn’t seem normal to hear about school shootings. Nearly 23 years later, it not uncommon to hear about it.
Before 2001, having to go through security at the airport was a major inconvenience and could make you miss your flight. Now, you plan to get to the airport about two hours early so that you don’t have to worry about missing your flight.
Prior to 2020, you wouldn’t think twice about being in a large group unless you are an introverted person who doesn’t enjoy fighting big crowds. Now, you’re just a little bit worried about catching a disease that the person next to you might have or possibly being involved in a superspreader event.
I guess that’s the new normal. Something weird comes along. It’s annoying for a while, but eventually we just get used to it. We realize that we either abide by rules such as wearing a mask to be able to be in large crowds, or we just go do something else.
Looking back over the last year, I wonder what things will be our new normal in 2022.
Last year, we saw all kinds of bizarre weather. We had ice and snow give us power outages. We had tornadoes and straight line wind damage across the county.
We had to deal with a big morning flash flood. We even had to deal with the remnants of Hurricane Ida.
We’ve seen a lot of crime happen in our area. That’s one thing I hope we never get used to.
To an extent, normal is something we can control. Let’s hope that we can choose a good new normal as we begin a new year in 2022.
Contact Brent at bmaze@-newtoncountyappeal.com.
