As 2020 slides into and probably infects 2021, try to take heart in one discomfiting fact: Things are most likely never going “back to normal.”

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People wear protective face masks while shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket as the city continues Phase 4 of re-opening following restrictions imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus on August 26, 2020 in New York City. The fourth phase allows outdoor arts and entertainment, sporting events without fans and media production.

It has become a well-worn phrase our politicians, officials, experts, even family, like to lean on — an ultimate, elusive prize.

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Perhaps it’s nostalgia for the world of January, a place where daily life more closely resembled our past decades. Perhaps it’s a bid to show control, to revert to a time when change was not so universally imposed upon us.

But January is long gone, and