Redefining normal

Getting off the treadmill.

I went back to work on Monday.

I’ve had the most glorious, privileged seven weeks focused exclusively on getting to know my son who was born in early December. Long, leisurely days when I didn’t get dressed until mid-afternoon. Slow walks through the park, noticing the gentle budding of trees and the unfurling of snowdrops. Visiting cafes during the week, welcoming family and friends to our home every day.

Seven weeks living a good life.

Of course, my bills won’t pay themselves and I’m shackled to the same economic system as you, so I have spent the last few days listening to the hum of my laptop fan and being pulled in every direction by the pinging of notifications.

Back to normal.

Image: Thomas Winward

It’s a dirty word, normal. There’s a resignation to it. A boring safeness.

Oh, well. Back to normal. Back to normality. Normal life.

Because let’s be clear - nothing about the way modern humans live their lives is normal.

Afternoons spent walking with my family and listening to midwinter birdsong have only reinforced this. That, to me, is normal life. It speaks to me on an organic level, on a social level, on a spiritual level. It fills my soul in ways consumerism never will.

There’s nothing normal about burning fossil fuels to drive to an air conditioned office to sit at a desk and send emails for an arbitrary number of hours each day.

There’s nothing normal about eating plastic-wrapped food that’s been flown across the world when there are seasonal, local alternatives at the farmers’ market down the road.

There’s nothing normal about refining oil into single-use plastic when seaweed makes a harmless alternative.

There’s nothing normal about buying a new smartphone each year when mountains of working phones are thrown in the bin.

There’s nothing normal about flying an entire new wardrobe of cheap clothes from China every month when there’s nothing wrong with the clothes you own.

There’s nothing normal about half of LA being consumed by wildfire, or half the UK vanishing beneath floodwater.

There’s nothing normal about ordering things you don’t need from Amazon only to throw them into landfill three months later.

There’s nothing normal about chasing infinitely increasing sales targets at the expense of your health.

There’s nothing normal about driving to a shop that’s only a 15-minute walk away.

There’s nothing normal about chainsawing an old-growth forest to make room for a shopping centre.

There’s nothing normal about any of this.

Image: Thomas Winward

Just because something has been done a certain way for a long time doesn’t mean it’s the right way of doing things. What if we challenged the status quo that’s destroying our health and our environment and sucking up every moment of our fleeting lives?

What if we championed flexible working patterns? What if we prioritised public transit instead of private cars? What if we valued the preservation of nature? What if we said no to plastic clothes? What if we learned how to grow food and care for soil and nurture trees and only took what we needed? What if we built renewable community energy instead of drilling new oil fields? What if we gave our money to charities instead of tech billionaires? What if we spent long nights together sharing stories instead of arguing with strangers in the comments section of the internet? What if we read books instead of Instagram posts? What if we enjoyed the view from a hill and the feeling of grass beneath our feet without feeling the need to post a picture on social media? What if we encouraged the learning of languages and the creation of art and the experience of other cultures and how to listen and how to repair and dance and swim and laugh and cry and forage and cook mussels over a log fire on a quiet beach while the sun’s dying rays sparkle golden on the ocean and seabirds dive in the distance?

What if we were content with what we have?

What if we opened up our hearts and rediscovered what it means to be human?

Image: Thomas Winward