creative forces

Blog # 105... May, 2020

“We’re all in this together” - words we see and hear many times every day, meant to unite and comfort us, and they do, to a point. The thing is, we all have different situations and resources that define our ability to handle what it is that  “we’re all in “ and there’s no question that the degree of equity we strive for has gone out the window.  I’m lucky, you too probably, to have a safe, comfortable place to shelter in, enough to eat and do. Several people close to me are ill or recovering from the virus, others are in affected Long Term Care places, I worry about them and about Les Vulnerables in general.

Covid 19, the Portaupic massacre and the helicopter crash challenge us all to believe that there’s something good to be found in the world. I’m moved in different directions by how art is coming forward - moving me slightly towards hope with the words and music presented in Nova Scotia Remembers and Stronger Together and towards desperate tears by Lisa McCully’s ukulele and song with her kids.

I’m gradually developing some enjoyment from the online delivery of culture. New York City’s  Public Theatre presentation of the 5^th in the Apple Family series “What Do We Need to Talk About? A Zoom conversation” was the first theatre piece based on the pandemic, and it was compelling.

I’m intrigued by how my life and its rhythms have changed. I share vivid dreams, a short attention span and a self administered hair cut with everyone else, but I’m not motivated to do Zoom happy hours, learn Spanish or bake bread. And going for a walk without a purpose other than exercise is an effort and I avoid it many days, even washing the bathroom floor or just staring out the window.

But life goes on, and if we think staying in has been hard, starting to go out and engage is going to be even harder. It’ll involve taking calculated risks, getting used to being anxious about exposing ourselves to the virus as it continues to change, or what we know about it does. We'll have to make decisions about what information to trust, how to deal with a shifting political and economic picture and how to adjust our individual lives to what uncertain reality emerges... the new abnormal.

Ludu's first attempt

We can do it though and there’ll be small things that encourage us to smile and relish that occasional little burst of joy, like the one I had a couple of weeks into the isolation when I got this image in an email.

My friend Ludu is a Bay Street wizard, full of energy, a keen golfer and the last person I’d picture sitting quietly with a watercolour brush contemplating a bunch of flowers.  But, it’s not business as usual these days and I’m happy to share Ludu’s charming piece as a testimony to what we can all do to survive and thrive.