In the era of coronavirus, try a little something new to keep hope alive
From 1950 to 1953 my brother made most of his spending money by selling information about his sister – that would be me – to my prospective suitors. You could call it Distance Learning, I guess.
Our family also had the only available TV in our neighborhood on the north side of Spokane, so my brother also charged a toll for entrance and prime seating in the living room. He did pretty well.
Mike suffered from Bright’s Disease, a kidney malady named for Dr. Richard Bright who discovered it in 1852. The term is no longer used, and today there are a variety of treatments for nephritis, but in the ‘50s and ‘60s, it could be a deadly disease, especially for children.
Some promising tests were just being done on salamanders, of all things, but there was no consistent treatment and he was mostly bedbound, denied normal activity and the comfort of other children during his elementary school years. To tell the truth, we had no idea how to help him. The doctor who came to the house told my mother seriously that Mike must never be allowed to cry because it might be fatal.
For eight years, the state of Washington sent a teacher to Mike’s bedroom twice a week. We invented games. He became a chess master before he was 12. My mother cried a lot.
I remember our struggles to find Mike something like a normal life as we grapple with life in the coronavirus era. It’s heartening to learn of the new ways companies and individuals are incorporating education and sparkle into distance learning. I talked to Brad Shur, co-founder of Puppet Pages, an innovative business cooperative that combines nine companies of puppeteers “to wake up creativity” with a series of workshops with award-winning puppetry and stories from Mexico to Morocco to Malaysia – all around the world.
Master Puppeteer Shur has been awarded multiple grants from the Jim Henson Foundation and has presented his work at museums, theaters and venues across the country, and now online.
This creative organization offers a variety of new programs and innovation for distance educators. They range from virtual birthday parties to special educational events like “Adventures with Priscilla,” an interactive show that features a puppet whose facial features are rearrangeable to help children – and adults – understand their own feelings.
Puppet Pages plans all sorts of events, but my own favorite is “Build a puppet from whatever you have in the house.”
“You just need something sticky and something to stick it to,” Brad Shur promises.
It turns out that Zoom, which has given birth to so many deadly dull meetings recently, has also become a vehicle for teaching and reaching out to friends, so I planned to get involved.
“I’m thinking of leading Tai Chi on Zoom,” I confessed to my son. “Mother, you’re just not qualified,” he said, horrified and mincing no words.
Of course I’m not qualified. What does that have to do with it? If I only did things I was qualified for, I’d never get anything done. It just seems to me that if there ever was a time to try something new, this is it. Just get together online and do Tai Chi, or paint a picture. Have some fun.
Lots of people are spending this time doing practical things like cleaning their closets. What a terrible idea! Anything that’s survived in my closet this long is probably mating and certainly shouldn’t be disturbed.
Maybe one day, like Bright’s Disease, we won’t even remember the name COVID-19. We can hope.
In the meantime, I have a report from good neighbor Sam Thayer who has left his garage door open all summer so as not to disturb robins nesting on the garage light. “They try so hard and put up with so much to bring life into the world,” Sam says. He reports that another Mom and Pop Robin did turn up to raise a second brood in his garage, and then the other night, with Dad Robin giving loud instructions, they all flew away.
But the garage door is still open. “I actually hope for another brood. Sometimes they raise a third brood,” Sam says with a hopeful sigh.
You know how it is when the kids move away. You adjust to it, but you’ve got to leave room for hope. If you just leave the garage door open, maybe they’ll come back.
Dorothy Wilhelm is an author, columnist, humorist and speaker and proficient in Zoom. She’s still sheltering in place and making good choices. Reach her at Dorothy@itsnevertoolate.com or 800-548-9264.
Where to find Dorothy in August
APPEARANCES
1-3 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5: “True Tales of Puget Sound — Small Histories of Washington State’s Beginnings,” Green River Community College Prime Time (Zoom). Students can register by going to greenriver.edu/primetime or calling 253-833-9111, Ext. 2535.
PODCAST
The Swimming Upstream can be found at www.itsnevertoolate.com or sobradionetwork.com/ Guests will be:
- Aug. 3: Robbie Samuels on “No More Bad Zoom: How to make a career leap in tough times.”
- Aug. 10: Robbie Samuels on “How To Raise Anti-Racist Children.” Samuels is the trans father of a 21st-century rainbow family. His practical tips for raising today’s children are practical for any family.
- Aug. 17: Sam Longoria, a Hollywood historian, and Dr. Patt Schwab. Topics are Hollywood tales from the original production artist of “Ghost Busters,” and what we can do to make long quarantine days fun and even funny.
- Aug. 24: Justice Richard Guy on “Rosa Parks, the story behind the legend.”