I always thought it was odd that old fashioned schools were called “normal”. Either that, or they were just telling it like it is: Go to school: Learn to be just like everybody else.
“Back to normal”, I am getting sick and tired of hearing that. People need to face facts. This train does not have a reverse. There is no “back to normal”. This is the way it is now from now on. The 6 foot that is permanent. The face masks are permanent. If you think all the Plexiglass shields up every where are ever going away then think again. They are ripping out public drinking water fountains around here. At some point things will level off but there is no going back. This is the way it is now. This is normal now. Sorry but the world you knew 6 months ago is gone forever.
This thread has given me cause to think about the role of change and how it affects people’s outlook.
My wife and I have been forced to accept change many times in our lives. It get a little easier each time. So we do not fear change. We look at it anxiously, but with confidence that we can endure it.
Some people grow up and live their entire lives within miles of where they were born and have lived the same lifestyle for decades. They are very comfortable with the life they know and fear losing it to the unknown that change might cause.
This fear is what put the “Again” in “Make America Great Again.”
People who fear change want to roll back the clock, deny history and make things the way they were in the “good old days.” The problem with the good old days is that people selectively remember only the good parts. Their thoughts, for all the sophistication they can put one them, amount to, “I don’t like it. It scares me. I don’t want it to be. Make it go away, mommy.”
There is a scientific term for dealing with change: it’s called adaptation. Species that can adapt, survive. Species that don’t, go extinct.
Is anybody planning to resume shaking hands? I’m not. But without it I don’t know how I’ll figure out whether the person I’m meeting has a weapon in his/her right hand.
There used to be Normal Schools. I know, for example, the University of Northern Arizona was originally Arizona Normal College.
Normal schools were established in 1839, chiefly to train elementary-school teachers for public schools in the United States. They offered a 2-year course. By the 1930’s most normal school evolved into teacher’s colleges which in turn became departments or schools of education in universities.
How do you know there is such a thing as normal, if there is no standard? Define normal, if you are trying to equivocate what is normal, you are using the “Stolen Concept,” a philosophical fallacy.
Bilan over 4 years ago
Does this mean that Capt Eddie will motor from one pier to another without a mishap?
wallylm over 4 years ago
A favorite lyric: “The Trouble with Normal is it always gets worse”!
gbars70 over 4 years ago
Ahhh, ‘the old normal’; we don’t have to hear that other tedious phrase anymore.
Concretionist over 4 years ago
I always thought it was odd that old fashioned schools were called “normal”. Either that, or they were just telling it like it is: Go to school: Learn to be just like everybody else.
keenanthelibrarian over 4 years ago
Poor bloody Eddie …
LilyGilder over 4 years ago
True story. There used to be a school here called, Southern Iowa Normal. Lovethe old photos of students wearing stuff with SIN on the front.
submachine over 4 years ago
Nahmal is only a setting on the dryer
David Henderson over 4 years ago
“Back to normal”, I am getting sick and tired of hearing that. People need to face facts. This train does not have a reverse. There is no “back to normal”. This is the way it is now from now on. The 6 foot that is permanent. The face masks are permanent. If you think all the Plexiglass shields up every where are ever going away then think again. They are ripping out public drinking water fountains around here. At some point things will level off but there is no going back. This is the way it is now. This is normal now. Sorry but the world you knew 6 months ago is gone forever.
Ib12us over 4 years ago
Ah what is abnormal by one becomes the new normal by another which in turn is seen as abnormal and is…
sandpiper over 4 years ago
Non-conformists conform to non-conformist rules
dflak over 4 years ago
This thread has given me cause to think about the role of change and how it affects people’s outlook.
My wife and I have been forced to accept change many times in our lives. It get a little easier each time. So we do not fear change. We look at it anxiously, but with confidence that we can endure it.
Some people grow up and live their entire lives within miles of where they were born and have lived the same lifestyle for decades. They are very comfortable with the life they know and fear losing it to the unknown that change might cause.
This fear is what put the “Again” in “Make America Great Again.”
People who fear change want to roll back the clock, deny history and make things the way they were in the “good old days.” The problem with the good old days is that people selectively remember only the good parts. Their thoughts, for all the sophistication they can put one them, amount to, “I don’t like it. It scares me. I don’t want it to be. Make it go away, mommy.”
There is a scientific term for dealing with change: it’s called adaptation. Species that can adapt, survive. Species that don’t, go extinct.
joannesshadow over 4 years ago
“We will be restoring normality just as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway.*
Radish the wordsmith over 4 years ago
Why be normal?
Whatcouldgowrong over 4 years ago
Is anybody planning to resume shaking hands? I’m not. But without it I don’t know how I’ll figure out whether the person I’m meeting has a weapon in his/her right hand.
vaughnrl2003 Premium Member over 4 years ago
For us introverts the new normal is the normal normal with better social enforcement.
Packratjohn Premium Member over 4 years ago
“Nahmal” is also elusive.
mistercatworks over 4 years ago
It’s like people who ask me if my cats act weird before an earthquake. Cats have a pretty broad range of behaviors that redefine weird.
Linguist over 4 years ago
There used to be Normal Schools. I know, for example, the University of Northern Arizona was originally Arizona Normal College.
Normal schools were established in 1839, chiefly to train elementary-school teachers for public schools in the United States. They offered a 2-year course. By the 1930’s most normal school evolved into teacher’s colleges which in turn became departments or schools of education in universities.
Herb L 1954 over 4 years ago
VOA went away,along with some very good people ;(
andersjg Premium Member over 4 years ago
Normal: whatever doesn’t scare the cat or freak the neighbors.
kartis over 4 years ago
A crisis that lasts long enough becomes the status quo.
Godfreydaniel over 4 years ago
When people tell me they wish we could go back to Victorian values, I point out that the two primary Victorian values were hypocrisy and hypochondria!
JenSolo02 over 4 years ago
I prefer “spectrum”…
locake over 4 years ago
Hopefully, life will return to normal on Jan. 20 of next year.
mwksix over 4 years ago
Time for Mel Brooks and “Abby Normal”../
Ka`ōnōhi`ula`okahōkūmiomio`ehiku Premium Member over 4 years ago
Normalcy is collective psychosis.
librarian4hire over 4 years ago
I’m totally stealing “Normal is a sliding scale.”
bakana over 4 years ago
Well, when Eddie is out hauling in lobster traps, he’s about as “Socially Distant” as it is possible to get.
Even More so when he’s stuck on top of a Mesa.
Bruce1253 over 4 years ago
A quote from Jack Nicholson, “I tried to be normal once, it was the worst two minutes of my life!”
bike2sac over 4 years ago
How do you know there is such a thing as normal, if there is no standard? Define normal, if you are trying to equivocate what is normal, you are using the “Stolen Concept,” a philosophical fallacy.
j.p.wright Premium Member over 4 years ago
As taken from the lyrics by singer/songwriter/activist Bruce Couburn
Bicycle Dude over 4 years ago
I like and will be using the phrase “Nahmal is a slidin’ scale.” I’ll skip deah though. :-D
Corey Cohen over 4 years ago
Wiley! No masks!!!???
Michie Z Premium Member over 4 years ago
I’m sorry, People – but most Humans are wired psychologically and physically for close contact. It just is.