Your Dying Spouse 744 - It's Not The New Normal {Five Minute Friday}

I really, really hate fashionable jargon.

And I save a particular loathing for The New Normal.

This isn't normal, guys. Normal was what we had before; this coronavirus thing is a war, and while it calls for adaptation, we have to remember what we're fighting for.

We are fighting for the lives we had, lives and freedoms that has been so harshly taken away.


In the weeks and months ahead we'll develop new routines, new circles of connexion. And it'll be tempting, as they become comfortable with use, to forget what had been.

The virtual church may be a lot more convenient - and perhaps compelling - than the clumsy building with the fickle aircon.

The online friends we meet in virtual community know our hearts better than the bearded beery Asian redneck with too many dog and guns who lives next door (yes, that's me, and this is a test).

But when Nana comes to visit when this is over, and she trips and hurts her hip, the Thug Next Door will leap the fence (knocking it down in the process) to come help, and the beer fumes will keep Nana from passing out.

The need for isolation will pass.

Make sure the desire for it is banished, too, for as a certain carpenter once said,

Where two or more are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.

He makes allowances for today's condition, I figure. Gather at a distance, for now.

Just don't let that distance take root.

They say this is New Normal,

that our lives to come will be

changed in manners (still informal)

which will gain permanency.

We will not care to gather

fearful of contaigon's knife,

but in future times will rather

pass in the virtual through our life

and throw aside community,

forsaking, too, the words of Donne;

ask not reason for the bell, prithee,

'tis for you it shall be rung!

When we abandon our lane-neighbour,

we cast off love, and Christ's labour.

Music from Vertical Horizon, with I'm Still Here in an oddly touching video that uses imagery from the roleplaying Final Fantasy game.

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.