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I've been thinking about this a lot since first reading it yesterday. It's a very difficult question to answer because it's difficult to define normal. On that horrible day 4 years ago, I thought that the world had truly changed forever. I thought our lives would be forever changed in big ways. In a few ways, this is true, but I have to admit, it isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I thought there would be a lot of attacks on our soil and that they'd be frequent. There was so much talk of attacks on nuclear plants (I have my iodine pills), water plants, financial centers, etc. I thought that I'd walk around feeling unsafe forever.
That said, it feels more normal than I thought it would. We have a new normal. Airport security is a pain in the butt now (we thought it was bad then though!). When we had the huge blackout in '03, the first thing everybody thought was that it was terrorism and we never would've thought that first. We are at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, so that's definitely new. While I was alive during Vietnam, I was very young. The Persian Gulf War was so quick and decisive that it didn't feel like a war. I think we're just starting to feel like a country at war now, with resources getting more scant and everybody knowing more and more people who have lost their lives over there. Being at war isn't normal though, not for us.
So, my own life is far more normal than I thought it would ever be again on that awful morning. But, our country has changed in many ways, forever. It really is a "new normal" that we've adjusted to.
Dee
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