UNFORSEEN |
The word is routinely used in association with circumstances, events et al when the happenings and outcomes impose a surprise. Most of us have had an occasion to use the word. It is a natural part of our expression vocabulary. I found certain experience-based enclaves to reuse the word.
UNFORSEEN RACISM
I subscribe to the theory about all of us being racist or biased inside our inner core. It is a combination of feelings and behaviors which makes each of us uncomfortable in the company of the people who by our own definition not one of us. Not one of us selectively applies biases to skin color, upbringing, social status and displayed wealth inequality. We easily congregate with equals or when we feel superior. This outline has existed since before the time.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic made me experience cracks in long term friendships. I am an immigrant, Indian-American who has begun to feel slow and diminishing friendships. None of us have changed from before but pandemic seems to have opened up a fracture of how we assimilate. There is an undercurrent of resentment of Not One of Us. Friends have withdrawn behind the very boundaries which prior assimilation had erased. Sad as it is, this is silent racism permeating through amicable relationships. Not for anything else but for Not One of Us.
UNFORSEEN TOMORROW
Life by design entails surprises. Guaranteed events and outcomes still need verification and validation. It is like holding a winning lottery that still needs validation of a prize. For past 5 decades, I always went to sleep knowing tomorrow will be here when I wake up. The challenges of what I know and do not know of tomorrow will be there almost always within my capacity to handle. More often than not, each day ahead was normal or brighter still within my bounds and capability of traversing the timeline.
A recent rash of observations has a full display of uncertainty. No time in my living history, I have seen or observed unforeseen tomorrow syndrome. For large number of people, I encountered, a fear of unknown - the tomorrow. The black cloud of uncertainty is becoming the new normal. COVID-19 pandemic contributed a great deal about living healthy but with uncertainty. When it will strike, who will it strike, am I really immune and am I next. The environmental changes of confinement versus freedom of movement, lack of socialization and achieving solace from company – all have diminished. So, the unforeseen tomorrow lingers on and on the verge of becoming a normal.
UNFORSEEN NORMAL
Normal is what defines the life. It is foundation for every living being to mark and make daily progress. Within the bounds of normal things do change. Most of the time changes are adoptable and in exception changes cause uncontrollable circumstances; difficult to manage. Such extreme changes are infrequent. That is how this world has been defined since its inception. But now the new normal is unpredictable with no crystal ball to gaze at or tarot cards to predict the future. It is more like walking in the thick fog not knowing when you take the next step forward whether there is soil under your feet – the Unforeseen Normal.