Pop-ups
Hey, the way I see it, we’ll be a better country when we come outta this thing. Not because of play-it-safe politicians, but because of us.
Just look at what’s going on. Young, tech-savvy kids are pitching in all over the country to help seniors navigate and book vaccines online. One kid said helping older people gives him a sense of connection and purpose that’s gone missing in this pandemic. It’s a cool young-and-old team-up.
In New York, Jon Batiste, the bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, pulled together his sidekicks and has been holding pop-up concerts at vaccine sites throughout the city and then doing the bee-bop-a-doo around the neighborhood to entertain people and keep hope alive.
Nancy Clayburgh in Portsmouth, New Hampshire lost her husband in May. Rather than lose herself in sadness and loneliness she started “driveway get-togethers” in the spring and it’s still going strong with her friends and neighbors. When it got cold, she got a firepit and some heat lamps. So now the crew sits around the fire on lawn chairs and swaps stories over a few drinks and a crockpot of hot chili. You gotta stick together to make it through.
And in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, a bunch of neighbors called the “Olmsted Choristers” get together every night at 5:30 to sing. One guy said, “It’s not the quality of the singing that matters, it’s the community, the togetherness, the people.” They knock off maybe three songs a night. One lady said, “It’s nice to have that interaction with people at the end of the day.”
Everyone wants COVID to go away, but they don’t want these connections to go away. It’s pop-up stuff like this that will bring it on home. Keep your dukes up.