The Journey: Day 5

 The Journey: Day 5

I have never cared for the term, “the new normal.” This phrase is normally invoked when things have gotten bad and appear that they will stay that way from now on. During the height of COVID, I would hear the phrase often. I never accepted wearing masks, social distancing, and fear of human contact as “normal.” It is as far from normal as you can get.

Acceptance of negative change might reduce stress for some, but for me it causes more stress. I never want to settle-for or accept as normal things which are nether good or normal. Let me give you an example. Pancreatic cancer is a very bad disease. The survival rate is very low. I have known several people who have had this dreaded disease, all of whom died from it. Several of the people I knew accepted the prognosis and began preparing to die. 

One had a very different approach. He started fighting from the first day of the prognosis. His mantra was “NEGU – Never Ever Give Up.” He pursued every possible treatment, including volunteering for experimental regimens; anything which he thought would give him another day to live. He lived well beyond the average survival rate. Before any of these that I knew developed the disease, I had read a book by a mathematics professor named Randy Pausch. His book on time management, The Last Lecture, changed my mindset on ways to utilize time to make it productive.

Randy had several young children when he was diagnosed. He wanted to live for them. He did not want them growing up without a father. Through all of his efforts to recover, he lived much longer than originally expected. He left a legacy for his children which could influence them well beyond his grave, including a video for his daughter to view if she ever got married. In it, he was able to say all the things he would have said at her wedding, even though he would not be there to walk her down the aisle.

For all these folks, the prognosis was the same. However, some “accepted” their fate as “the new normal” and others did not. I want to think that I am in the group that would fight tooth and nail to live. I never want to settle for anything less than the “zoe” life Jesus spoke of; a Greek word which means, “life and plenty of it.” There is something more than I have yet to experience. I don’t know what it is, or at this point, even where to search. Until then, I want to squeeze the life out of each day, to live in the moment, and live life to the full. If you want to call it “the new normal,” then so be it. But there is nothing normal about this, and for that, I am thankful.