A temporary phase or a new ‘normal’ ?

As I walk down the street, things seem to have normalised once again.
Face masks are only needed in little occasions, people are no longer going to great lengths to avoid one another, bars are open and the noise of coffee machines can be heard once again.

Everything seems ‘okay’. But then, as I make a trip to the office in the university to pick something up I realise it’s really a parallel normal. From the temperature scan at the entrance through to that eery feeling of being alone on the floor. 
I feel in a parallel world. 

I notice it also on the choice of what i want to listen to (podcasts for example) or watch. I feel that life pre-pandemic was a different one. Not necessarily life itself, i mean we  breathe, eat sleep  and feel emotions the same way now than we did before. But something has changed. Perhaps the way we view the world? Perhaps the realisation that maybe it is a frail system and a little blow can throw us off course. We are not omnipotent, and a tiny little invisible thing can cause madness, political chaos and lock us in our homes. Personally, it showed me even more how much life is worth living (not that I ever doubt that, but it reinforced the fact that every moment should be lived to the fullest). And anyway, I believe a lot of us have a whole new set of priorities to what they had before. 
I think we should harness this change..

Everybody (or at least a lot of people) keep referring to these as these very hard times, these difficult times. But to copy a phrase I heard from a friend: 'you can’t change the world in dressing gown and slippers’. So it’s time that we put on our best warrior shirt (yes a rainbow tie die can do the job well) and we roll our sleeves and make the most out of this transition. 


But how??

• Get back what is ours. We should be able to decide on the future and not let incompetent politicians take decisions just for glory or money. We must demand participative politics, especially at the local scale where i believe quite frankly most of the impactful actions can be made. It is now the time for citizen to take the front seat and drive the decisional car

 

• Be  ready and open to change. Things are changing whether we like it or not, but perhaps we can envision the change and be ready to accept it. This doesn’t mean we have to revert to a prehistoric life with no internet or phones and become hunter gatherers, but living as unsustainably as we did is also not a good idea. Finding new sustainable normals is key. And the great news is that this pandemic may have helped, for example by developing networks of local shops getting organised for online shopping and food deliveries coming from local farms. By changing we are not necessarily going to lose. For example, industries could change their products in favour of sustainable or useful things and people could still be employed. I am thinking, instead of making new things from raw materials spending efforts into really reuse what is already there. This will mean a lot more money on the research and piloting of new materials and new products. This can mean jobs of all kinds. Next time someone suggests to stop capitalism, don’t reply ‘eh but people need to eat’ - and try to see a different perspective

 

• HAVE YOUR SAY! If you have ideas you can shape policies, at least at European Level. This is important active participation. you can find the portal here where various european initiatives will have a window to ask for citizens and stakeholders opinion. You can help shape where investments are made and it is important to take advantage of these

I don’t think I have to reiterate how connected we are to nature and how important it is that we restart in a more harmonious way. 
Just to leave you with a piece of thought from a letter to the editor in ecological modelling :

'Nowhere it is written that economic growth and environmental exploitation should restart as they were. We are receiving warning messages from Gaia, some of the strongest and clearest of all our evolutionary time. If we ignore them, we can blame only ourselves.'