Gov. Tim Walz promised that “normalcy is on the horizon” during his State of the State speech on Sunday. Speaking from the classroom where he once taught social studies at Mankato West High School, Walz said “brighter days are ahead,” thanks to the increasing number of COVID vaccinations and businesses starting to reopen.

So, what is normalcy? Here are some ways you can tell normalcy is here:

– Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature quit yelling at Walz about his emergency powers declarations and go back to yelling at him about high taxes and excessive state spending.

– The end of the school year finds school kids and teachers breathing sighs of relief that the year is finally over and they won’t have to see each other for a couple of months, instead of waving to each other in drive-by events.

– Fans can crowd into baseball parks and pack the bleachers without worrying about six-foot social distancing or whether their cheering is spreading viruses too far.

– People can go to church every Sunday, sit wherever they want and sing hymns loudly, if not tunefully. Or, they can start feeling guilty again about not going to church.

Seriously, we want people to be able to go back to work, for businesses to open their doors and not worry about too many people coming in the door, and people to be able to smile at each other without masks and shake hands once again. We want people to be able to celebrate graduations, weddings, birthdays and anniversaries with everyone they love, without worrying about spreading disease.

It may be a while before we reach that horizon the governor was talking about, but it must be getting closer.