You don’t need to look very far to find someone or something referencing an event, situation, status or other condition as the “new normal”.

Every career, job, occupation, hobby, social custom, weather update and identifiable condition is getting tarred and feathered with this cliché. Go ahead, try and find someone refer to the “old normal”. You’ve got a better chance of finding a tap dancing unicorn in your bathroom.

And that would actually make more sense than the “new” normal.

How can this be? Simply put, one of the two is a recognizable object. The other is the “new normal”.

It probably seemed pretty catchy the first time you heard the term. It made sense, too, as it applied to a situation undergoing unexpectedly rapid change. But at this point, “new normal” is little more than a knee-jerk reaction to label anything that is even the slightest bit uncomfortable, disturbing or unpleasantly surprising.

 “New normal” implies going from an “old” established, stable situation into a “new” established, stable situation. But that brings us to another worn out cliché’ “the only thing that remains constant is change”. (Which, by the way, is not constant at all – change occurs at different rates for different subjects. But that’s another topic.)

But “new”, just like “now”, is a relative term. Are you referencing something you discovered this year? This week? This morning? Five minutes ago?

That’s why you may want to start using the phrase the “current normal”.

Go ahead, sneer in derision, roll your eyes, shrug your shoulders and otherwise dismiss this as an exercise in semantics if it makes you happy. Then consider for a moment the distinction between the two terms.

“Current normal” may not be as alliterative a term, but it is more accurate. It underlines the instability underlying anything and everything around us. As much as we cherish the illusion of stability, it should be obvious that we exist in a constant state of flux. Just review what has happened in the past year – maybe even the past month – and see how much has changed.

Face it, normal is a concept that changes by the minute, if not faster. Embrace it.

Accept that “normal” is merely a temporary state that always seems to change faster than we expected. Doing so could lower our stress, raise our ability to cope and maybe even get along with each other a bit better. Using the adjective “current” might help us accomplish this.

Of course, it won’t take long for “current” normal to seem out-dated and boring. Which would be fine if it meant our lives were improved. Wouldn’t it?