The Steele Report 

So everyone’s waiting for ‘normal’ to return. 

We shouldn’t rub our hands together in glee just yet.  I think there will be two normals.  The new version of our personal normal and societies  collective vision of normal. 

Neither of them might be anything we are anticipating.

To get out of a financial debacle we have loaned each other a mountain of debt.  See, what we thought was normal was in fact a mirage in a wasteland of consumerism.  We bought things we didn’t need much like folks on a diet abandoning their calorie counters.  Yes need, was superseded by want of  instant gratification.  I want became the buy word.

First of all the weakness of our economy is exposed.  We don’t manufacture enough of the things we need in a crisis.  Our food system has problems.  We might have enough food but in a crisis there might be transportation problems, inventory problems and more.  That is just one area.  We have relied on

cheap goods at the expense of jobs at home.  Cheap is always subject to the value of need  when it comes to good value.

Jobs will be effected as we are confronted with the new discipline of affordability.  That is, people buying only what they need.  We are going to face a recession for sure and great skill will be required to keep it from descending into chaos.

Back to normal?  My father used to say be careful what you wish for.

So how to we navigate through this?  It will take understanding, compassion, practical reasoning, trust, forgiveness, hope and ingenuity.  We will have to curb our appetite for greed and self centered aspirations by thinking we instead of me.  No we are not out of the woods but we have to plan ahead for what is coming.

The fact is society for a decade behaved like intoxicated patrons in a night club.  Last call has been called, the music stopped.  The lights are turned up bright and it’s soon going to be time to pay the tab.

Fred Steele