What will the new normal look like when this pandemic is behind us? Are there different daily routines or habits we’ll adopt? Will we change the way we interact with our friends and families? Or how we perform our jobs? These are some of the questions people are asking.
I don’t find myself asking these questions, though. I have no idea what the future holds in store for the world. That’s too big a question for me. I can’t even tell you what my own future looks like.
But I still think about my own future so I can at least try to live the life I want to live. I’m not fooling myself. I know I have little or no control over most things. Yet I still like to try to exert a little influence if I can. Before I look into my future, I start by thinking about my present: What kind of person am I? What things do I like doing? What matters to me? Then I think about my past: What made me who I am? And then finally I think about my future: What kind of person do I want to be? What things will matter most to me? What things will I want to do?
My questions about my past inevitably give rise to memories of the people who’ve influenced me. My late grandfather was one of these people. His name was Jack Lang, but we called him Papa. He and I were very close and I loved him a lot.
When I was a little boy I used to get up early on summer weekends when he and my grandmother visited us in the Laurentians so we could eat breakfast together – hot cereal, a mixture of cream of wheat and cornmeal, no matter how hot it was outside. Then we’d take our shaves. His was real. Mine involved him shmearing shaving cream on my face with his brush then shaving it off with a razor with no blade. He taught me the joys of noshing. Twice a day, mid-morning and mid-afternoon, we’d have a piece of danish together. Later, when I was in my late teens, we were both smitten by a certain apple strudel. He always made sure there was a strudel waiting when we arrived for a visit. As chance would have it, I ran into Papa on the street one day when we were both out and about. I could see first the surprise then the love in his eyes when he noticed me. I’ll never forget how he came up to me, took my face in his hands and said “If I knew I was going to see you, I would have brought a strudel.”
My sweet spot for treats might be thanks to Papa, but it’s not the greatest gift he gave me. He also showed me how to be kind, humble and honest and how to live a good life. But the most important gift he gave me was showing me how wonderful it is to feel loved because whenever I saw his face, I could see the deep love he felt for me. I can still see it in my mind. It’s very comforting. I hope I can be a Papa like he was a Papa.
This time in history is reinforcing my thinking that it’s the simple things in life we tend to take for granted, like a Papa’s love, that make a world of difference. So when I think about how I’d like to change my life in the future, I think about the simple things. All those sayings you’ve heard a million times – live in the present, family is everything, if you have your health you have it all – are really true so pay attention to them. Enjoy the moment, make your family and friends feel loved and take care of your health. If you do these things, chances are you’ll live a good life. That’s what I’m going to try to do. That and wash my hands more often.
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