A Question For Us All?

I want to start a conversation about our future. It appears that many are comfortable passing around the phrase “new normal” as the aspiration for tomorrow. We are captured by the ease of phrasing and delivery in our everyday language. It has caught on like a forest fire around the globe fueled by our desire for normalcy and fanned by the winds of media.

What is “new normal”? At best, it reaches backward to our past.  Even if we are longing for memorable experiences, it’s searches the landscape of “what was” in hope that we can recreate what we have already lived. We used to have a like phrase, “business as usual.” I see your smile. Today, if you were to call for this in your business, you would be seen as laughable. If you tried to claim this as your life motto, your world would leave you behind.

We are familiar with the transformative nature of language. We know that “words become…”. Why would we cling to language that inherently calls us to our past. Do we really want to repeat it? Have we convinced ourselves that we can thrive in our future “looking backward”?

Of course, our past has value. We can learn from it. We can build on it, informing ourselves about possibilities for today. We can even use it to help shape our future.

Our challenge is to express into the future. Call forth the tomorrow we want to create and inhabit. We cannot wait till we get there and try to name it then. It’s already the past by that time. How can we say today, what we aspire to for tomorrow? I sense that it needs to be something close to our, “emerging future” to be livable. At least our eyes will be looking forward!

What are your thoughts, ideas, contributions?

“Book of Life” Artist: David Kracov