Shut Down Part 4: How Abnormal Became Normal

I walk about 40 miles a week through 160 miles of pathways and trails in my community in The Woodlands, Texas. In the last month I’ve noticed something very unusual: people! In my normal 3-mile loop I pass dozens of families riding their bicycles and many couples walking. Something even rarer; there are a lot people feeding the ducks and fishing in the pond.

The other day in the grocery store I helped a woman who was crying because she was trying to buy food, but she didn’t know how to cook it.

Here’s the real unusual part, people are actually smiling and talking to me about how nice the weather is and how pleasant it is to hear the birds singing in the trees.

I noticed along the miles of pathway that there are dozens of little stones the size of your fist painted in all the primary colors and they have words written on them that say smile, you are loved, believe.

Something very strange is definitely happening. Or is it strange? Are these things actually normal, but so unusual in the last two decades that I’ve forgotten what it feels like? Has abnormal become so normal that now I’m not accustomed to normal?

In my way of thinking it’s normal to walk, cook, smile, talk to people, and notice the weather and the birds, but it was so uncommon in the last two decades that people thought I was weird. I don’t know how to feel if I’m no longer being different. Maybe I should run back into my house and stop walking until all the people flip back to the 2019 version of normal. 

But wait, what if that doesn’t happen? What if people actually start to like this return to the prior days where we appreciated the simple joys of life? What’s going to happen if they stop buying things they don’t need with money they don’t have? Well for starters the storage shed business is going to be in big trouble. On the positive side there will be a lot of good deals on eBay.

People might actually start saving! Oh my God.

If all these people keep walking they might start losing weight, their hypertension and diabetes will go away, then they might start taking less pills. 

Think of all the jobs that might be lost with the companies that make all those pills. How about all the stores that make a $10 cotton shirt and sell it for $90? Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will definitely not like this. He said just last week, “There’s more important things than living.” Now that was normal (for him, not me).

What about all these parents who are spending time with their children right now, how is that going to affect the kids? They might start feeling more loved and appreciated. Once they become corporate leaders they might now have a warped sense of reality.

With all the people feeding the ducks, there’s definitely going to be an explosion of duck babies, that’s for sure. All the people catching trout might start eating less processed foods. There go all the saturated fatty acids we spent two decades saving. Goodbye heart disease. Just another thing we’re going to have to let go.

How is all this going to affect our health insurance premiums? Mine used to be 4% of my income and it went up to 12% over the last 10 years. Maybe this new abnormal behavior might drive my health insurance premiums down, but what am I going do if there’s no branded shirts to buy, go to eBay? I might just have to start saving some of that money.

And what if people actually start enjoying cooking their own food, what’s going to happen to all the restaurants and fast food joints? I don’t know, this return from abnormal back to normal can really start to get one’s head spinning in circles. Suppose people start liking exercising outside, or working from home, all the gyms are going to be in trouble and commercial real estate will crash.

What if thousands of people around the country start to paint these little rocks and put them all over the place and people start reading them? This could actually destroy all the political campaign strategies for 2020. I suppose people could start throwing the rocks.

Oh no. I had another thought. It keeps expanding and getting bigger. What if people start shattering the illusions and misconceptions that have perpetuated pain, suffering, division and hatred and find inner peace? All this time doing crafts, singing, cooking, dancing, and playing might remind people that what binds us is greater than what divides us. Everything would change.

This could have devastating effects on the entire time-space continuum.

Some politician will definitely latch onto this trend and start promoting uplifting and inspiring messages. They might actually win the election! If Americans started to be inspired, tap into their greatest creative and innovative gifts and talents that would absolutely change the relation of nations!

Nations might come together and start solving some of our problems as one. Some smart demagogue might appeal to our higher nature and promote fake news about how the air, water, and minerals are unaware of artificial boundaries created by mankind. I’ll be bet people would fall for that one.

All of the Russian cyber spies would definitely be out of a job because no one would be reading their liberal versus conservative or black versus white propaganda. Facebook ad revenue would drop like a rock in the bottom of the ocean. That would cause the NASDAQ to plummet and all the algorithmic trading programs would pull every stock down. All from a bunch a happy rocks. What a mess.

We’ve got to do something about these happy rocks before they cause a massive impact on consumer behavior and industrial patterns. If we continue to allow all this joy, the talking heads in the media and Wall Street will have to start thinking on their own. My goodness, what would they say?

With all of this expanded awareness, heaven forbid, but I am beginning to think that people might realize we can actually sew our own curtains, or make our own bread without preservatives. The smell of fresh bread with fresh coffee is definitely something we need to regulate. Do you see what I mean about a time-space break here? Some people might realize we don’t need as many nuclear weapons, or they might start caring more about the climate. Imagine the impact on the military industrial complex or the energy industry. $20 trillion in debt invested and turned to ruin. Poof. Gone.

CNN and Fox ratings would plummet because they don’t have anybody to fight with. Tens of millions of people might cancel their cable TV subscription because they’re too busy cooking and playing with their children. 

I think we better forget about thinking what was normal and stick with abnormal: Nearly sixty-percent living paycheck to paycheck; with obesity rising 40 percent in two decades, with over 40 percent obese; health care costs doubling in a decade; banks paying over $100 billion in fines; millions defaulting on their credit card debt because real wages remained flat for decades, and poor fiscal leadership will have us bailing out multiple bankrupt states and their pension funds.

The implications are simply earth shattering. Seriously now, I must return to my normal. Having thousands of people paint rocks with cheerful and uplifting messages must just be what the CDC and WHO prescribe. Stay tuned for the coming Reboot Series.