Back to nOrMaL
When I sent word to Lisbon last night that we would be working out of our office today for the first time since the storm, the Consul-General replied that he was "glad to hear that things are returning to normal."
Some things were normal: we were in our regular office, the main avenue and square in front of the cathedral were sparkling clean. There was a lot that was not normal, though. I was able to park in my designated spot downtown, but I had to pass through 5 or 6 police checkpoints and show my ID badge from the Embassy. The street at the office door was squeaky clean, but the block behind the office building (the ocean front avenue) was off limits. Pardon the pun, but I think you would have been more likely to get a Big Muck than a Big Mac in the McDonald's just below our office. In the interest of truthful disclosure, there was a team of young people cleaning up the McDonald's restaurant, but they were using their back door that comes out on our squeaky clean street instead of their front door on the ocean front avenue where the Big Muck was being scooped up.
Normal? The post office was open, as were the banks. Nearly all the coffee shops and restaurants and a surprising number of shops. "...returning to normal...," the man said. We're not quite there yet. Will it ever be normal again?
The question came up after 9/ll, and we are back to normal now. It's normal to have to limit and separate liquids when we fly, take off our shoes, get patted down, and most likely be full body x-rayed in the near future. Normal, now. But what is normal?
Perhaps "normal" is merely what we are used to seeing and expect to experience.
In some ways we see death as "normal"...everyone dies sooner or later. In Biblical terms, however, death is not the normalcy God originally intended. His plan of redemption is to return us to the original state of normalcy: close, constant fellowship with Him forever, with no death.
In our personal lives, we can come to accept sin as "normal"...everyone does it. In Biblical terms, sin is only normal because we are fallen creatures, fallen from the original "normal" state of sinlessness. But we accept sin and death as normal.
In today's world we have returned to normal after 9/11, but it is not the "normalcy" of pre-9/11. In Funchal, on Madeira, we will return to normal. But it will never be what was normal before Saturday. We will return to nOrmAl, or NorMaL, or NOrMal, and whichever it is, in time it will become normal.
Some things were normal: we were in our regular office, the main avenue and square in front of the cathedral were sparkling clean. There was a lot that was not normal, though. I was able to park in my designated spot downtown, but I had to pass through 5 or 6 police checkpoints and show my ID badge from the Embassy. The street at the office door was squeaky clean, but the block behind the office building (the ocean front avenue) was off limits. Pardon the pun, but I think you would have been more likely to get a Big Muck than a Big Mac in the McDonald's just below our office. In the interest of truthful disclosure, there was a team of young people cleaning up the McDonald's restaurant, but they were using their back door that comes out on our squeaky clean street instead of their front door on the ocean front avenue where the Big Muck was being scooped up.
Normal? The post office was open, as were the banks. Nearly all the coffee shops and restaurants and a surprising number of shops. "...returning to normal...," the man said. We're not quite there yet. Will it ever be normal again?
The question came up after 9/ll, and we are back to normal now. It's normal to have to limit and separate liquids when we fly, take off our shoes, get patted down, and most likely be full body x-rayed in the near future. Normal, now. But what is normal?
Perhaps "normal" is merely what we are used to seeing and expect to experience.
In some ways we see death as "normal"...everyone dies sooner or later. In Biblical terms, however, death is not the normalcy God originally intended. His plan of redemption is to return us to the original state of normalcy: close, constant fellowship with Him forever, with no death.
In our personal lives, we can come to accept sin as "normal"...everyone does it. In Biblical terms, sin is only normal because we are fallen creatures, fallen from the original "normal" state of sinlessness. But we accept sin and death as normal.
In today's world we have returned to normal after 9/11, but it is not the "normalcy" of pre-9/11. In Funchal, on Madeira, we will return to normal. But it will never be what was normal before Saturday. We will return to nOrmAl, or NorMaL, or NOrMal, and whichever it is, in time it will become normal.
posted by EP | 9:39 PM | Permalink
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