Last week’s elections have given Americans an opening to think about something other than politics. Well, hallelujah! Most results are in, and whatever happens with the Georgia Senate race and any other unfinished counting, the outcome is sufficiently balanced for governing to go forward. Election Day was peaceable. It felt normal.

Normal is what everyone aches for. A good normal is a stable and workable way of life for most people and an open door for all others to seek the same – or, as originally described, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is why voters in a free country should reasonably expect that after they do their part, those they elected will get down to the people’s business and individuals can go back to their own.

How that works now is still a question. The world has been stuck in a cycle of looking for the “new normal” since Covid took away old normal. New normal is wondering what new normal is.

That kind of circular thinking can frazzle a person and a whole society when, really, the way to find the new normal is to practice it.

Undeniably, it has been hard. Normal as it used to be has not completely taken hold. Schools, as we know, have enormous catching up to do. Restaurants and other small businesses continue to look for a return of normal volume. As Day Staff Writer Kristina Dorsey recently reported, local community theater groups have unintentionally dramatized the fact that preparation and hard work are not enough if Covid gets a foot in the door. Their scheduled performances took multiple hits when cast and crew members consecutively tested positive for the virus.

Even if normal continues to morph, however, humans will persist in finding new arrangements that work, often incorporating lessons learned in the pandemic. One such is the value of early voting, a practice in all but four states, including Connecticut. More people vote when early voting is an option. That’s a plus for democracy.

Connecticut voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum question Tuesday that asked whether the Constitution of the State should “be amended to permit the General Assembly to provide for early voting.” In 2024, the ballot will include the question of universal, no-excuse absentee balloting.

Fresh thinking about a new normal may also include a change in social media habits. During the pandemic, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms did offer a means of some sort of socialization for isolated people. Habits can swiftly become compulsions, however, and too many of us are focused on the screen when there are real, live people with whom we can interact. It will be interesting to see if changes that will follow the thousands of layoffs at Twitter and Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, will break the spell for users accustomed to the media in new configurations.

From personal experience I have another suggestion for finding normal: For an hour or two, sit down for a performance, preferably a live one. It can be anything from a school play to the Coast Guard Band, which, by the way, is paid for by your tax dollars so it is free to attend. Pause conversations, electronic or in-person. Stop thinking. Become a sponge.

When the house lights dim and the rustling settles down, each person waiting for the curtain to rise becomes an audience of one. It’s called the magic of the theater because what else can make that happen? A full house at the Garde has a thousand audiences of one, each of them freed for a little while to focus on something fascinating other than themselves.

At the end, each of those one-person audiences does the same thing: They applaud. Where there was a thousand, there is now one, all making the same sound, signifying the same appreciation. It feels so normal.

Lisa McGinley is a member of The Day Editorial Board.