How do we want to live?
I’m tired. I’m tired of living the “new normal”. First, we all asked the question “when are we going back to normal”? Until we realized: Ouch, it’s not going to be like it was before. Then we started to talk about the “new normal”, about “new work”, about home office and about opportunities the pandemic has to offer and about the acceleration of the digital transformation.
I wonder, what do we actually mean by saying “new normal”?
In my case, this means that I’m working from home since March. There has been 2–3 weeks working from the office in the summer. Working from home means that I’m sharing a desk and the kitchen table with my partner. If we wouldn’t plan out our food for a whole week, doing grocery shopping on Sundays, I wouldn’t eat lunch. Yes, I’m struggling to prepare lunch for me. My biggest dream is to pick up a healthy and tasty lunch from our workplace canteen.
Having these thoughts makes me feel embarrassed, because I’m in the privileged position to just take care of myself, without children. How does our “new normal” work out with taking care of children? Suddenly, parents are becoming teachers, while performing in a home office job at a kitchen table and preparing lunch. “New normal” seems like a dystopia to me and I refuse to define it as normal.
Sometimes I stumble upon tips about how to find a new routine. One of them is always: Connect digitally with others.
I often find myself in the situation that I attend more meetings online than I could visit physically. And yet, I don’t feel very connected. In fact, I have difficulties to really grasp people’s mood and vibes. Everything that happens before, in between and after conversations is gone.
So let’s face it, don’t we all wish it to be an interim solution and we are trying to make it sound cool and hip by calling it the “new normal”?
If we can’t return back to normal, but don’t want to live the “new normal” — what do we want? How do we want to live?
Sociologist Armin Nassehi is saying that the question of how we want to live, can’t be answered, because he doesn’t want to live in a society where it is (pre-) defined how we all should live.
And who is “we”? A group, a party, a company, family or friends — this is left open, says Nassehi. (1)
So, I should correct myself and also correct this text: It is not us asking, it’s just me.
Instead I should be asking the right questions: How do I want to live? What do I want to do and how do I define my “new normal”?
(1) Lotter, W. (12/2020). Das Beste, was uns passieren kann. brand eins.
