Going back to normal? Don’t worry, there's no such thing

So what does a normal day entail right now? For virtually all of us it’s far removed from what we understood by a ‘normal day’ three or four weeks ago.

Normal for me was working in an office.

I’m fortunate enough to be still working, writing an awardlosing column from my own bedroom.

Indeed, returning to work is primary reason for wishing things would revert to type; as is the desire to see the people and places we like best.

You may even look forward to seeing people and places you never much cared for. They don’t seem so bad now.

Nationally, before coronavirus, normality was years of fibbing and name calling passing for debate over something called Brexit.

The hope was that Brexit would be done, one way or another, preceding a return to normality.

Before that we had the financial crisis.

We hoped the world economy would eventually recover, then return to normal. It didn’t quite happen, we just plodded on until Brexit took over the show.

The coronavirus is regularly compared to World War Two. This seems to be rather overstating things. Coronavirus is probably the biggest story in the lifetime of most of us thus far, but I still wouldn’t swap 2020 for the horrors of 1940.

Yet the privations and dangers of war became normal for those who endured it - while they waited for things to return to the normality they had between wars, much of which was miserable.

The unusual is now the commonplace in more mundane matters too. In February, if a shop assistant clattered your change onto the counter rather than your hand, they had an attitude problem. Now they’re life savers.

People wearing masks in public might previously have caused you to call the police. The opposite could soon apply. For a while, pasta was a stronger currency than the pound.

The normal activity that many of us pine for, for reasons we can’t even explain to ourselves, is watching our beloved team at the Stadium of Light. Yet what passes for normal at that place is a subject for a symposium in itself.

Things might never return to normal. But worry not, because there’s no such thing.

Sunderland were nothing short of excellent in every single game they’ve played this season, so let’s hope things get back to normal soon. Picture by Frank Reid.