A Quarter in Quarantine: What I've Learned
A week ago today, we started the fourth month of classes at JWS online. It has been an extraordinary (and sometimes harrowing) journey so far. The learning curve has been unbelievably steep. In fact, I can only think of one other time in my life when the learning curve has been this steep: when my daughter was first born and I was a mom for the first time.
It occurred to me the other day that now that a full quarter of a year has passed in quarantine (what?!), I need to do a quarterly review, the same way I would if we were not in the middle of both a much needed uprising for justice and a global pandemic.
So, I have reflected, and I’d love to share with you some of the important things I have learned in my first quarter in quarantine.
1) Physical distancing, and social distancing are not the same thing.
What has proven to be absolutely extraordinary is that in our JWS Online Zoom room, we have created a global community of artists who truly care about each other, who show up for each other in ways that are beyond description, who have mobilized to create the change they wish to see. They are physically distant, but they are socially intimate.
Let's all look for ways to create more social interaction in our quarantine lives.
2) We have to give ourselves grace.
Obviously every day we're learning more and more about COVID-19 and its impact on our world. We all are striving for balance and security and stability, but the only thing that is stable right now is the fact that nothing is stable. It's a hard reality to accept, but accept it we must if we want to move forward. When we go to bed each night, we must do so with the knowledge that we cannot know what the morning will bring.
We must release ourselves from the need for perfect balance and instead give ourselves imperfect grace.
3) Leaders are everywhere.
The theatre industry that has been so traditionally hierarchical that people with the incredible capacity to lead and create change had been completely shut out from even the possibility of raising their voice. That false and unnecessary hierarchy is gone now. What has replaced it is an open space in which those who wish to lead can raise their hand and step forward and use their voice. Leadership is skill. Like any skill, if you wish to develop it, you can.
If you have ideas to make the future better, we need you. This is the time to practice what it looks like to use your voice. This is the time to raise your hand and say, “follow me”.
4) Old dreams may have died, and that’s okay.
I've been finding myself in lots of meetings with clients recently where it becomes clear that they are trying to find the courage to say something that is on their heart. What finally comes out is that they are harboring a new dream, and they're afraid to say it out loud for fear of betraying their old dream. They feel obliged to the version of themselves that had committed so many resources (money, relationships, time, energy) to a different dream.
Having a new dream is not only okay, it's a beautiful thing. Your previous investments are not wasted. You get to decide what is useful to carry forward and what isn't. There is so much possibility in the air. There are so many new dreams that deserve to be imagined and then built.
We must free ourselves to build something new and better.
5) Creativity and creating are essential.
I recently heard an incredible quote from Natalie Nixon on Seth Godin’s podcast “Akimbo”.
“Creativity is our capacity and ability to toggle between wonder and rigor to solve problems.”
With our problems exposed and laid bare, the explicit need for creativity cannot be ignored. My fellow artists, we have devoted our lives to cultivating our creativity. Our work is needed. Right now. Desperately.
It might take a form you didn’t expect or exist in a company you never imagined you’d be a part of or present itself in an industry you didn’t envision yourself working in.
Stay open to the possibilities.
Creativity is needed EVERYWHERE.
Your work is a gift to us all.