Editorial

Are things getting back to normal? Do I even dare entertain the thought?

I sat in familiar Farmgate traffic this week, the sort where after half an hour, or maybe seven, you start imagining miniscule movements of the vehicles ahead of you. It was familiar but also jarring, and if I didn't have work to get to I think I would have run away. Farmgate traffic is too real for the fantasy version of a life I've been living these last 18 months. I am not ready.

 I wonder if anyone is ready, to be quite honest. We all want to be ready, everyone's desperate for things to be like what they used to be. But, we are also scared that things will get much worse if we rush it – a valid fear. Many of us have forgotten how terrible things were back when no one knew Wuhan was a thing, and getting back to normal will include remembering the coping mechanisms and lost habits that we used to survive life in this city (and in this reality in general) from day to day.

Who knows how long it'll take for them to come back?