Normalcy in the Age of Apprehension

Weeks later there39s now a glimmer of light ahead and our thoughts are starting to shift to the future an era that I39m calling the Age of Apprehension Each of us is anticipating our postpandemic future in our own way based on our individual circumstances and that in turn is being colored by our personal tendency to be pessimistic optimistic or somewhere in between Regardless of our differing outlooks for the future what we can all agree on is that we are and will continue to be living in uncertain times Since humans tend not to like the unneeded anxiety that39s associated with uncertainty what should we do As a boomer who39s seen a lot of what life can throw our way I39ve learned that when the future gets unpredictable it39s best to learn from the pastThe past that39s relevant begins in 1919 a time when Americans were struggling to cope with the grim aftermath of an unprecedent first world war wondering if they could ever restore a prewar mentality and way of life It was in this era of despair that a relatively unknown Ohio senator39s bid for the presidency would be all but guaranteed by a shrewd marketing idea that salved the soul of a mournful nation Warren Harding campaigned with the promise of quota return to normalcyquot and a nation that was fatigued by uncertainty and yearning for things to get back to the way they were swept him into office with a landslide victoryHarding39s campaign slogan was the original quotsticky ideaquot and it has endured as a recurring promise of hope whenever our country has needed to heal World War I would be inconceivably followed by yet another global conflict giving way to a lingering Cold War and ultimately a terrorism strike on American soil that has left us with a fragile sense of security But by learning from the past we have eventually triumphed over each of these setbacks by remaining hopeful in the knowledge that all storms pass if we hold fastAfter each of these lifealtering events it39s widely accepted that things eventually returned to normal but what we really experienced was a quotnew normalquot Despite what we wish for the past can never really be taken back so we don39t actually get back to normal instead we move forward to something new that makes us feel like we did before The return to normalcy is a creeping phenomenon that happens in small indiscernible increments We don39t object to these changes to our comfortable normal because we don39t notice that they39re happeningBy example let39s reflect on 911 There39s a lot that I will never forget about that infamous day especially my thoughts prayers and hopes for things to quotget back to normalquot as soon as possible Nearly two decades later most of us feel that we39re back to normal because no foreign terrorist organization has since launched a deadly attack in the US Yet if we look around us there39s a lot about our post 911 world that39s anything but normal The fear of unpredictable violence persists in the form of homegrown terrorism and mass shootings while the omnipresence of heightened security measures remind us that things will never go back to the way they once wereNone of us has the ability to accurately predict what our postpandemic new normal will look like but lessons from history do predict that the future is never the same as the past Change is inevitable and without change we cannot have progress Count me among the optimists who are expecting a gradual easing of fear accelerated by a vaccinal and therapeutic solution We may have to live with more apprehension than we have but in the end we will surely triumph as we always have In the meantime perhaps we can all be inspired by the full words of Harding39s promise that are as apt today as they were those many years ago quotAmerica39s present need is not heroics but healing not nostrums but normalcy not revolution but restoration not agitation but adjustment not surgery but serenity not the dramatic but the dispassionate not experiment but equipoise not submergence in internationality but sustainment in triumphant nationalityquot Photo credit Courtesy of BoomAgersClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Normalcy in the Age of Apprehension

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Peter Hubbell

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