creative forces

Blog # 106…June 2020

We’re still all in this – going on three months now!  And there’s a sense that we’re settling in for a long haul of uncertainty being the only sure thing… all in different boats in the same storm.

Summer’s here and being outside is safer, easier to keep that 2 metre distance, providing a relief from isolation and giving our eyes a chance to focus on distant trees rather than screens.

Artists, whether musicians, actors, painters or dancers, suddenly deprived of their audiences and their incomes, have quickly devised ways of bringing their wares to the public, often free. As well as keeping their creative energy alive and their images in our thoughts, they’re contributing to our sense of comfort and security and giving us hope that we may survive the storm. Let’s return the favour and support them when venues open again, maybe even sending a contribution when you’ve enjoyed a performance.

I don’t find watching a film in front of my computer as satisfying as curling up in a darkened theatre, not even close, not even if I make popcorn. But I have discovered that being able to watch a complicated play over again is great -  I catch all the dialogue and can focus on details that I missed the first time. Same thing with visiting a gallery, although the quality is a bit diminished, the ability to linger and return to a piece (and be sitting down while I look!) has advantages.  The trade-off is always the luxury of being alone while missing the sense of shared experience.

And, as if the devilish covid 19 wasn’t enough to think about, the clock just ran out on the very serious issue of racism, here as well as elsewhere.   It may be that being forced to deal with the changes the pandemic causes could be useful in some ways, maybe making other important and necessary changes  while we’re at it.

Like everyone else, I’m struggling with what to do about racism because I know that even though I think I’m an open-minded and tolerant person, I’m part of the problem -  we all are.  This morning I watched a live panel of actors, staff and crew in a streamed program Black Like Me, past present and future: Behind the Stratford Festival Curtain, a two hour investment of time that gave me more insight into the issues black people face than years of reading books and articles. They were candid and courageous and a few tears were shed, on both sides of the screen. Catch it if you can, on YouTube, I know you’ll find it worth the time.

Although the theatre folks opened the door on their particular experiences and circumstances, Black people aren't a monolith and have their own unique versions of dismissive, unjust or outright cruel treatment.  We need to open our hearts and minds and recognize the common humanity (like covid 19 does!) if we're to be part of the solution.                                                                                

Victor Hugo lived in a time of equal turbulence and social unrest and left us with these words “If a soul is left in the darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.”

The New Yorker always adds a rare chance for a laugh