Denial is a peculiar thing. It can occur even when it's regarding something as overwhelmingly obvious as the end of the world. Grandma Maud, for example, believed until the day she died that Washington D.C. would eventually send help.
And I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard someone start a sentence with, "When things get back to normal...". In fact, the expression, "I wish I had a nickel for every" is now completely meaningless because nickels and other forms of currency no longer have value. That's how irreversibly the world had changed. Seven billion people died! Things will NEVER be "normal" again.
Even Uncle Peter was in denial.
After he reclaimed his wallet from Officer Hal, Uncle Peter took it with him whenever he left the house, just like he did before the peak.
One hot August day, I was outside, doing chores with Uncle Peter. The highway gave off shimmering waves of heat as the sun throbbed in a clear, blue sky. I straightened my knotted back, wiped my sweaty brow, and sat on a shaded bench to rest. Uncle Peter ambled over and sat next to me. He felt his wallet pressing on his rump and took it out. It occurred to him he'd not cleaned his wallet in a long time. So he opened it up. He made two piles: one for trash and one for things to keep.
First, he pulled out a gum wrapper... Obviously, that went into the trash pile.
Travel agent's business card... trash.
Insurance card... trash.
$10 bill... trash.
Three quarters... trash.
Library card.... trash.
$20 gift card... trash.
Fishing license... trash.
Credit card... trash.
Voter ID card... trash.
Social security card... trash.
Driver's license... trash.
All that remained was an empty wallet. Now that was trash, too. Before the peak, if Uncle Peter had lost his wallet, he'd FREAK out! All those things were SO important to him. "I'm never going to need any of this stuff again," he realized, "The world will NEVER be normal again!" That's when the last bit of denial left him. He looked gutted.
How could he not realized such an obvious fact? The answer is, of course, denial. Ridding oneself of denial can be difficult and painful. But it's usually worth it. From that moment on, we started looking at our community differently. And we realized we needed a long-term plan. Not for regaining our old normal life, but for building a new "normal".
The next day, Uncle Peter and I learned to hunt. Uncle Ellis gave us pointers, but mostly, we were self-taught. The skill came in handy when predators came snooping around.
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