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“You will leave everything you love most:
this is the arrow that the bow of exile shoots first”
Dante – Paradiso XVII: 55-60
Like most everyone in the country in the last couple of weeks, I’ve had to forgo some of what I love most, an in-person visit with my son and granddaughter in CA, weekly in-person rehearsals with my InterPlay improv troupe Wing & A Prayer Pittsburgh Players, and presenting at the now cancelled 2020 International Expressive Arts Therapy Association Conference in Phoenix.
Like most grown-ups, I’m now self-exiling and obeying the shelter-in-place restrictions to avoid getting sick and spreading the Corona Virus. (My age puts me in a high-risk group). It helps me to do what’s needed when I remember why I’m doing it. I remind myself that this sacrifice of travel and face-to face contact with friends and loved ones is being done to help flattening the curve and slow the spread of the disease so our health care system is capable of treating those people, many already infected, who will need treatment.
It helps to realize that people in other pandemics and plagues have made similar sacrifices. I heard somewhere that Shakespeare wrote many of his plays and poems while in self-exile from the Bubonic Plague of the 1600s. In an on-line search I learned that during various periods of the Bard’s lifetime, the theaters, along with the pubs and public houses, were closed by London’s health officials, sending him to his room to write. Inspiration for the familiar curse, “A plague on
both your houses!” likely came from such experiences.
From ancient times until today, removing one’s self from the community and the network of relationships that we are embedded in, is still considered the most difficult form of self-sacrifice or, if inflicted by others, the cruelest of punishments.
But to prevent our isolation we have something our ancestors didn’t have –our on-line technologies. We can get, moment by moment, the latest information about the spread of the virus, efforts to combat it, its effect on the economy and the stock market, and the conflicting advice of politicians who fear their own worst fates;
bodies piled up in the streets, or an economic depression so deep and long, there will be no chance for their re-elections. And as if that’s not enough, there’s a bonus –easy access through social media channels to obtain the latest items about the virus, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and crack pot remedies to avoid or cure it.
I’m one of those people who has had a love/hate relationship with on-line technology for years, having been an immigrant in that place where my grandchild move in and around so gracefully. But here I am, in this difficult moment, making amends. I remind myself I’m a life-long learner and my life isn’t over yet- there’s more to learn. As I practice daily, getting better at using platforms like Zoom on my computer or Messaging and Facetime on my phone, I’m staying in touch with friends and loved ones. I’m teaching Interplay classes on-line and, though I would
still prefer body to body, face to face–technology makes it possible to connect, create and play with folks sequestered in any part of the world.
Though hardly comparable to a Shakespearean sonnet, in between my zoom sessions with clients and students, I’ve returned to working on the book proposal for my next book, The Art of Grieving. Given the tsunami of losses we are all experiencing, individually and communally, there will surely be a need to add some additional chapters.
In pivoting to what is possible –What gifts are you finding in this moment?
Might you have a project that you had not found focus or time to do until now?
Sheila
I have openings in my schedule to coach and consult with people individually using Zoom. Email me at sheilakcollins@gmail.com if you would like to schedule a free discovery call.
To arrange an InterPlay session for your group or join one that is already being held call 817-706-4967 or email me at sheilakcollins@gmail.com
Join my co-author Christine & I next Tuesday at 1pm est for an online offering click here: “Self-Care in Times of Crisis”
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