So. Welcome to the global pandemic of 2020. It’s a bad high-school biology class, with the highest stakes imaginable and some unreliable or even dishonest teachers, that all of us are suddenly forced to sit still and pay attention to. Let’s get the facts and then help each other out. Let’s pass notes.
—images by Ricardo Levins Morales, www.rlmartstudio.com
Flatten the curve. We are staying home, since Friday evening. Schools in Baltimore are closed. I am only attending outdoor meetings with the ability to stay six feet from everyone. Scot has to report to the office one day per week. Beyond that, we are practicing social distancing. Lots of video conference meetings. I’m heartened by how many people are willing to stay home to protect the most vulnerable among us. I’m also old enough to be amazed by the ubiquitous technology that allows us to connect by video calling, when just ten years ago, before Zoom and Google Hangouts, the isolation of this time would have been absolutely crushing. (Are these platforms listening in on us and recording our faces? Hopefully not, but if so, that is a violation of privacy we will have to reckon with after this pandemic has run its course.) Of course, a quarter of the people in our city still lack internet access. Comcast is offering two months free for new customers in our market, but it’s still an issue. Check in on your neighbors. Speaking of which…
Collective Care is Our Best Weapon. This is a national, growing list of mutual aid agreements and local and statewide strategy papers for responding to crisis in communities. If you’re interested in becoming involved in a grassroots community care response, this could be a first stop for you.
—images by Ricardo Levins Morales, www.rlmartstudio.com
Create things. If you have time tomorrow, get up early and write a play for some college kids in Minnesota who have to stay away from theater classes. Draw. Craft. Bake. Make music. Make coffee.
Go outside. (Just not in close proximity to others, and not to a playground.) Here on the East Coast, the weather is turning warmer. I’ve been actually jogging, both with and without the dog, which has been astonishingly pleasant. Taiyo realized today he could go outside and throw his boomerang on the soccer fields with a friend and they’d never be closer than 6ft. apart. Here he is about to throw it:
Entertain yourself. We were able to enjoy a shared movie experience with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents this weekend, with live commenting using the Netflix Party extension for Google Chrome. It totally worked and was a morale boost for a bunch of cousins staring down two weeks or more stuck in the house. Today, we went to the Louvre and looked at the Egyptian artifacts, including the Zodiac of Dendera and a human mummy. And we saw the Apollo 11 lunar landing module at the National Air & Space Museum. And we never left the house. Here are a dozen more museums globally that have virtual tours you can take. Churches and synagogues are moving services and prayer groups online, which can be a fun way to tune in to your spiritual practice. And the Monterey Bay Aquarium has live cameras you can use to watch the animals while the aquarium itself is closed.
Teach children. If you live with children, you can teach them a recipe or a complex household chore or a song. You can assign reading and help them do their homework packets that the schools send home. If you do not live with children, I would love to talk to you about having you as a guest lecturer for my two kids via Zoom video conference during this time! Are you a scientist, attorney, historian, artist, author, or community organizer? A social worker or journalist? A game designer or librarian? We’d love to have you talk to us for 20 minutes about your area of expertise. Please contact me!
These images are just so lovely. I hope you find them grounding and helpful. They can be found on Ricardo’s website, at www.rlmartstudio.com, along with his prints for sale (of which I own at least a half dozen, I’m a huge fan of his radical artwork).
I’ll sign off now, as I have crocheting and some more emailing to do to help care for my various communities during the time of COVID-19. I hope you can practice your radical calm and compassion as much as possible — starting with compassion for yourself. Reclaim your attention from the news and pay it to those you care about. We’re going to get through this. The comments are open.
In Solidarity,
Mariya
Psssst, reader! Thank you for reading. And I hope you will keep in touch! Would you please share this freely so that others may sign up?