The old normal – and a new normal? Part 1

14 March 2023
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John Anderson

Before COVID-19 the old normal was characterised by greed, inequity, exhaustion, consumption and disconnection.  Such is the shock to received opinion that a new normal has been developing: generosity, equity, quietude, conservation and connection. This is the Way of Christ.

In Luke 18:24 Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”  Yet we had come to believe that our children should be richer than us, that if we had the money, we could do anything, despite the cost in carbon dioxide emissions.  We were greedy for travel even though we know that air transport is far more deleterious to the climate than surface travel.  In other words, we lived for the endless multiplication of unnecessary ‘necessaries’.  During lockdown, however, a spirit of generous care for those in need, of admiration for the National Health Service workers and all those engaged in essential but sometimes menial tasks who, we suddenly realise, are key workers.  The fact that so many were paid so little but gave so much only increased our generous assessment of them.

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