Being that today is Canadian Thanksgiving, I thought I’d rack my brain to come up with seven things to be grateful for that have arisen out of the oppressive COVID-19 scandal:

1. Outdoor Classrooms: “If weather permits, consideration could be given to having classes outside,” SickKids Hospital had advised in a July report. As you can see from the above photo, some schools have taken heed.
   
2. More Homeschooling: With lockdowns, masking and a forthcoming COVID-19 vaccine, more and more parents are homeschooling their children. As Robert Kiyosaki says, the education system has become “obsolete and out of touch with reality” (from the back cover of John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction).
   
3. Less Commuting: Rates.ca polled Canadians and found 28% more employees are now working from home compared to last year. This gives people more time for their families, exercise and sleep, while reducing car expenses and traffic fatalities.
   
4. The Emperor Has Absolutely No Clothes Left: The pure denial of science and common sense regarding lockdowns, masking, social distancing and testing has exposed what is either mass corruption, complete incompetence or gun-to-their-head servitude on the part of politicians, media and the medical system. The Pew Research Center reports that 25% of American adults believe that COVID-19 is an orchestrated conspiracy.
   
5. Spurred to Courage: Many people who have been aware of mounting deception and malicious intentions on the part of government, media and corporations are no longer staying passively quiet. People are facing their fear of authority and fighting back against tyranny. “Protests over responses to the COVID-19 pandemic” now has it’s own Wikipedia entry, listing rallies in 34 countries.
   
6. Awakened Discrimination: A year ago people didn’t even know what a coronavirus was or how to spell totalitarianism. Now, lay people are delving into scientific studies, studying history and developing analytic abilities; as they try to separate truth from fiction in this information war. They are heeding evidence instead of experts.
   
7. More Outdoor Patio Space: As you can see from the photo below, social distancing has led to cities allocating more outdoor patio space for restaurants. Our city built these wooden boardwalks around the front of restaurants in our downtown core….

So while the nutty new normal has had negative intentions, out of even the darkest plots much good must come. If nothing else, I am grateful that the scamdemic has triggered change on a massive scale. The world certainly had enough problems that needed changing. Let’s just make sure the change is positive.

In Richard Wagamese’s novel, Indian Horse, an Ojibway medicine man speaks about the “new normal” that the Zhaunagush (the white men) were bringing upon their land:

“A great change will come. It will come with the speed of lightning and it will scorch all our lives… But we must learn to ride each one of these horses of change. It is what the future asks of us and our survival depends on it.”

One day, may we look back on this nutty new normal with gratitude that it pivoted mankind away from a world ruled by generations of oligarchies into one guided by the unchanging qualities of love, wisdom and courage.