The ‘now normal’: A digital Geezer Forum!

In case you haven’t noticed, COVID-19 has created twists and turns in our “normal” lives! Some people suggest we now live in a “new normal”. I suggest we live in our “now normal”! What we consider normal today is likely going to change again, and again, and again.

We don’t know when the virus’ impact will increase or decrease in Idaho, in north Idaho or in Bonner County. But any pattern can change our descriptions of “normal”. What we can do is mentally anticipate we will need to engage in what for years I’ve called “planned spontaneity.” Our plans need to be flexible enough to change with what is happening.

An immediate change is about to happen with The Geezer Forum. Until we can safely gather in Columbia Bank’s Community Room, as we “normally” do, we shall gather digitally. Our first Fall Geeze Forum is September 8. I will give specific information about a link to that meeting in a few weeks.

Not coincidentally, our first guest speaker will be Katherine Hoyer, Public Information Officer for Panhandle Health District! Katherine will update us on PHD’s activities relative to COVID-19. Additionally, she’ll give us an expanded understanding of other work that PHD does in the significant arena called Public Health.

Recently, I read a thoughtful and forward-thinking article called “The New Normal in a Post-Vaccine World”. Author Bruce Horovitz’s point is that even after a COVID-19 vaccine is in place, how older adults live and move around in our society will be different than even they are now.

I found the article in Next Avenue, an e-newsletter I subscribe to. Horovitz touches on five topics where changes are already happening and will continue to change. medical care, travel, eating, home life and shopping, and social gatherings are the topics.

The changes on each topic are related to those of us who are older adults. I had already scheduled out nearly 4 months of Geezer Forums before I read this article. Many of our forums already touch on one or more of those topics. So many impacts of COVID-19 have touched our lives already. But scientists, medical personnel and social scientists anticipate that many other impacts will continue to change some of the ways we live our lives even after the virus is “under control”. We are in a period of Now Normal.

I can only hope you are finding ways to help others make their needed adjustments, just as you let others help you make your adjustments. Many of us are angry that we need to make adjustments at all! We didn’t expect such changes would be necessary in our later years.

Well, they are, friends! Please find your better ways to cope with those changes. Be a geezer-in-training, ready to learn from what is. You’ll stand a better chance to live a healthier and fuller life from this day forward!

Paul R. Graves, M.Div., is Lead Geezer-in-Training for Elder Advocates, a consulting ministry on aging issues. Contact Paul at 208-610-4971 or elderadvocates@nctv.com.