As a kid growing up in the late 1980s and early '90s, it was pretty common during live assemblies (award ceremonies, recitals, and educational presentations) to hear the phrase – “Please forgive us - we are experiencing technical difficulties.” Technical difficulties were expected in the world I grew up in. Technical difficulties were everyone’s reminder that the world wasn’t ready for: the digital, the virtual, and the cybernetic. And then along comes COVID-19. In a strange way, the now well-oiled machine we call the “digital world” stepped up to the hot microphone and said, “Please forgive us, we are experiencing ‘natural world difficulties.’”
This is just one of scores of significant shifts that have taken place since March 13, when President Trump stepped up to the microphone and declared a state of emergency related to COVID-19.
Whether you desire for things to go back to normal, or you’ve embraced the notion of a “new normal,” one thing is for sure – the world has changed. From my seat as a college minister, I can barely keep up with the personal and professional adjustments being required of me with each new hour.
If you would have told me just this past February that “medical grade designer face masks” would be in everyone’s online shopping carts, I would have looked at you as if you had a third eye. And yet, here we are. An invisible microbial enemy has changed how we: dress, gather, and wash our hands.
I recently bought something off of Facebook marketplace. I attempted to hand the seller, who was wearing nylon gloves, a twenty-dollar bill. She requested that I Venmo the money instead. What ever happened to the “cash only” signs I used to see growing up? I guess they left town with the expression “Please forgive us, we are experiencing technical difficulties.”
As eager as people say they are to get back to “normal life,” the world is changing. What employees, after working remotely for two months, will now enthusiastically jump up and embrace their long and traffic ridden commutes to work? What patients, after being able to visit the doctor virtually without even having to put their pants on will want to make a face to face appointment when they are feeling their worst? What parents haven’t grown to love the convenience of a drive-by birthday parade as opposed to the drudgery of sitting through the traditional 2-hour Saturday-killer watching the birthday boy open 10 different Lego sets?
A few months ago we rarely, if ever, used phrases like: “social distancing,” “sheltering in place,” and “non-essential businesses,” but there is no possible way to put the genie back in the bottle.
Once everyone is done pretending to be a handy man and plundering Home Depot, or quits burning through their stimulus check on Amazon, we are going to look around and notice a different world.
Maybe you are a non-conformist. Maybe, you never once turned on Netflix and fell in love with your couch during the quarantine. Maybe you can’t wait to double dip chips at the Mexican restaurant like old times. Maybe, you tell yourself each night that: viruses are nothing new, stimulus packages are nothing new, and national states of emergency are nothing new. But once we finally emerge from our bubble-wrapped homes and step outside, well, you will see.
Joshua Gilmore serves as the director of Baptist College Ministries at North Greenville University.