On the road the other day we stopped at one of the ubiquitous MacDonalds for an egg McMuffin. As we came in the door there was a confused couple our age standing in front of a computer screen where they could order their meal. It was not going well. With a sigh the woman turned to me and said, “I will be so glad when things go back to normal.” I did not have the heart to tell her that her normal was gone forever.
When we reach a certain age, we need to realize that our world is gone for good. No one will pump our gas and wash our windshield at the gas station. Check out lines with real people are slowly drying up as we learn to check ourselves out. Dining rooms are disappearing, and young people have electronic devices permanently attached to their hands. There is no point in mourning this, it is just the way the world is now, and this is the normal for those young people inhabiting it.
We just have to adjust, as much as we are able, to the way things are today. Perhaps we need to stretch ourselves a bit to learn new ways of doing things and perhaps we will decide that we are not interested in learning how to tweet or enter yet another portal. However we navigate this new normal, it would be best if we did it quietly. One thing the new normal does not want is a long whine about how much better it used to be.
