Covid Fosters Creativity?
How does that work?
Graphic illustrations adapted from drawings by Bryce Chismire.
[San Juan Silver Stage | Spring 2021 | Kathryn R. Burke]
Has Covid fostered creativity?. Bet you never looked at it that way, but when you think about it, Covid 19, by whatever name you call it and whatever news source you track (or choose to believe) to follow it, has actually impacted our lives for the better in many ways. It has forced us to rethink what has long been considered “normal” and evolve into accepting, even embracing, a “new” normal rich with a myriad of positive possibilities.
Our world is changing—shrinking, yet expanding—and both at the same time! Yes, Covid has restricted our activities and frequently narrowed our “in-person” options to “at home” or “closer to home.” Yet, at the same time, it has it also made our universe a lot bigger. It has extended the “local only” labels that have constricted our lifestyles and resources for so long to a wider world filled with boundless resources and opportunities.
Today, thanks to Covid, our reach for shopping and services has unlimited proximity. Order products online from anywhere, and anything can be delivered to your doorstep or storefront. Any service provider, regardless of their locality, can visit you virtually, so you can tap into services and learning experiences once unavailable or unattainable.
This does not mean the end of “shop local” and “support local businesses.” It actually enhances it. Covid’s unwanted restrictions also open doors, widening the scope of what we can buy, how we can get it, and where we can get it from. Your neighborhood is still there, but at the same time, it just got a whole lot bigger.
Food
Let’s start with a basic necessity, food: shopping, purchasing, preparing, and eating it. Order groceries online from your local grocery and pick up curbside at the store or have them delivered direct to your door. Want something they don’t carry or ingredients for a special or exotic meal? Order online, and everything you need will magically appear on your doorstep within days—maybe even minutes, if the local store carries it. Your home menus just got a whole lot more interesting and entertaining.
Want to “eat out” but you’re afraid of shared Covid cooties? You can still “dine in” without “going out.” Covid has caused (forced?) restaurants to get creative in order to survive, many devising ways you can enjoy the best of their menus without being seated in their premises. Order online, pick up your food fully cooked or ready to cook at their door or curbside, or call for home delivery. If they don’t have their own delivery staff, they can use one of the many services that travels between the facility that prepares meals to the location where people eat it. And even that is evolving. Some restaurants offer frozen meals (pick up or delivery) so you can save and savor at a later date.
[Related Articles: Tammee Tuttle, Hometown Heroine; Eat In, Take Out;]
Housing
Housing, another basic necessity, is that place you call “home”—where you live, rent, own, or just camp out. Used to be if you wanted to change abodes, you went through the laborious process of looking, finding, touring, offering, and filling out endless reams of paperwork. Home hunting, regardless if it would be temporary or permanent, a purchase or rental, was a time gobbling procedure.
Now? You can do it all online. Hunt and view virtual listings from home when it’s convenient. File applications, even closing documents, online. You could be sunning on a beach in Florida while you’re selling your house in Colorado to someone living in L.A. Personal proximity is no longer a required criteria to buying, selling, or renting your abode.
All you need to do, once you find what you want, is order the moving company (can be done online) or ask your friends (if they live nearby) to pick up your stuff and schlep it from the old location to the new. I speak of this from painful personal experience: I’m in the throes of moving and am thankful that virtual help has saved me countless (mostly non-productive) hours of the time and effort of locating the right place.
Wearables
Clothes. Yes, it’s true that Covid has mostly meant yoga pants and sweatshirts, bad haircuts and house slippers. We’ve all holed up at home in our comfy clothes or jammies (often sourced from the big box stores that have remained open). That hasn’t helped the apparel industry sell “nice” clothes and, sadly, has caused some small downtown stores to close their doors forever. But not all. The more Covid-creative establishments have embraced virtual technologies like Facebook and Instagram, offering quickie virtual “fashion shows” and a slew of innovative ideas and shopping suggestions, so you can look good, and thus feel good, even when isolating.
Encouraged (by helpful articles on how to stay mentally healthy) to “get up and get dressed” and establish a daily schedule during homebound times, we’ve discovered online shopping channels for clothing, jewelry, and accessories. OK, I admit I’m skipping “heels, hose, and handbags” every day (long ago gave up the first two, anyway), but I do take the time to put together a coordinated outfit, and I never go without earrings. If I do go out, even to the grocery store, I accessorize with the right handbag and cute boots.
Now that we are emerging from our government-imposed cocoons, with a chance to get out and mingle, we are excited to dress better, to rise above jeans, tees, and ball caps and home-cut hair. But…meantime, we’ve widened our shopping horizons, learning to shop online and discovering new ideas and outfits sourced from faraway places as well as local shops. We’ve found fascinating (and mostly affordable) new outlets for enhancing our wardrobes. We’re still ordering online for home delivery, but some of us do venture out to local shops to look and touch before we buy. [Related articles: Quarantine in Style; The New Business Model—We’ve All Gone Virtual ]
Education
Teaching and learning have undergone drastic changes over the past year. Parents have learned how to teach things they knew nothing or little about. Teachers have had to master digital teaching technology—easier for the younger ones who were already using it, but not so much for older teachers steeped in traditional learning. It’s hardest on the kids, maybe, because taking away the classroom experience also took away camaraderie and socialization.
The Covid Curve may be improving, but we still have a long way to go. Meantime, everyone from administrators to student aids, college students to daycare kids are discovering new ways to teach and learn, with new tools for both. Today, you can master a foreign language without ever visiting that foreign country, then become digital “pen pals” with a native speaker, learning about their culture and “seeing” (by virtual visits) how they live. It’s another example of “expanding” our world while confined to a smaller locale.
[Related articles: Elevating Virtual Education; Education 20-21; How do You Connect? ]
Socialization and Communication
Used to be if you wondered what your family or friends were up to, you dropped in to say, “Hi,” or scheduled a time to do something fun together and catch up on neighborhood news. Now, not so much. Especially with mandated quarantines before and after any in-person visit.
Seniors have been one of the hardest-hit groups of forced isolation. Living alone at home is one of the worst situations, since family and friend fear in-person visits could infect those who are most vunerable to the virus. Those living in facilities are often confined to their rooms, with no social interaction.
Enter the Internet, our digital friend, that lets us use smart phones to text and voice call; hand-held and desktop devices to read, writeand receive social media posts and exchange photographs; send PMs (private messages) in all kinds of ways; Skype, Zoom, conference call for single or group exchanges and activities. The virtual “Sky’s the Limit” with unlimited possibilities. And there’s no age limit to tap into them; From toddlers with Playstations to virtual cocktail hours to seniors attending live-streamed “social hours,” everyone of every age is jumping on the bandwith bandwagon.
Medicine
This may be one of the biggest changes and challenges. Covid is more problematic to older people, and older people are more likely to have health problems. For some, visiting a doctor’s office is their only social outing. Covid restricted those coveted visits and kept many patients from seeking physical and mental healthcare when they most needed it. Conversely, kids traditionally hate “going to the doctor” and have to be dragged to an office visit. They often hide or downplay their symptoms to avoid it.
The solution, which happened almost exponentially, was virtual healthcare. Doctors and specialists can consult with patients via smart phones and computerized links. Home visits can be virtual visits; provider and patient need not be in the same physical location.
Kid’s got spots? Take a pix with your smartphone, send it to a pediatrician hundreds of miles away, answer some questions, follow some verbal suggestions, get a diagnosis (measles, hives, bee sting), and a prescription can be ordered, charged to your account, and delivered or mailed to you within minutes. You never have to stick the sick kid in your car and drive him to the doctor. Hubby had a heart attack? He can be monitored from home, with various digital devices, without making frequent check-up trips to his doctor.
Watch here for more in-depth discussion on telemedicine over the next couple of months as we visit with providers to give a thorough look at the industry and how it has evolved. More creative solutions caused by Covid.
Entertainment and the Arts
We’ve been covering this for the last year, keeping our readers up to date with the Covid-caused challenges and changes in the world of arts and entertainment. For a while, during the highlight of isolation, A&E has been mostly virtual. {Check our current and archived A&E pages for ongoing examples of A&E’s virtual evolution.)
When galleries closed, art receptions and art sales went online. Virtual art stores popped up all over the Internet. And they’re likely to stay there. During the height of Covid, live theater and live music performances were restricted to limited audiences, then shut down completely. Innovative thespians and musicians transitioned into virtual performances, mastering Facebook streaming and Zoom to find new ways to reach larger audiences. That extended world is now open to the entire creative community. It’s a change that is likely to stay. Most large-scale gatherings, such as outdoor concerts and craft fairs, have been cancelled, postponed or, more recently, allowed, but scaled down. [Related articles: Art in Isolation; check archives page for more A&E articles related to new ways to entertain.]
Self-care
All age groups, from kids to seniors, have been impacted by the virus, and most have learned new ways of coping and self-care. Organizations like Region 10 have reached out to seniors, a hard-hit age group due to health concerns and vulnerability. Second Chance Humane Society found ways to help pet-parents who depend now, more than ever, on fur-family companions. Families have rediscovered each other, finding ways to do things together, take virtual vacations and tours, and stay connected with distant family members through digital technology. Companies like Elevate Internet have been a literal lifeline to many families and businesses.[Related Articles: Coping with Cabin Fever; Covid Relief Programs for Pets; Elevate Your Stay Station; Virtual Field Trips; Elevate to a New Normal ]
There’s no doubt that many creative lifestyle solutions have been caused by Covid, changes that will continue to impact our lives in a positive way for future generations as well as our own. Stay tuned as we discover and share more with you about Covid Creativity.
