This pandemic is a long way from over, but we continue to adapt
We’ve taken a survey to see how the local zeitgeist is changing as the COVID-19 pandemic goes on, and on, and on. Like much you have read about the pandemic, our study is based on sketchy data and has not been peer reviewed. Here are our findings:
Many women have stopped coloring their hair. Men are shaving less often. The dress code for working at home is down to shorts and T shirts. Shirts with collars are worn only for Zoom meetings.
Low-level depression and anxiety are the norm, along with the pure sadness of seeing the death toll rise so fast again. We are developing remarkable coping skills, but there are still times when we are overwhelmed by weariness, frustration and anger – especially when we see people without masks, or masks worn below their noses.
Among those spending a lot of time at home, there is a huge wave of cleaning of garages, basements and closets. People are getting rid of a lot of stuff. Goodwill and Value Village must be pleased.
Most of us are on edge about the extreme unpredictability of the future. We can’t predict the pandemic’s course, the election outcome, or when we’ll have a reliable vaccine. And we can’t make plans.
It’s been a long time since life was normal, and it will be longer still until we know what the new normal will be.
What is this about again?
In Portland, it has seemed like violent pseudo-anarchists and federal agents have needed each other for their nightly theatrics, which mainly benefited FOX News ratings, and provided video for an attempted remake of the 1968 Nixon law-and-order campaign. This is not the sort of Good Trouble that the late civil rights icon John Lewis talked about. This is stupid trouble. Stupid saboteurs of important, peaceful protest, stupid federal policy to send in the troops. To paraphrase our president, there are very stupid people on both sides.
Here in Olympia, we can be grateful that we are too small to attract federal troops. Sadly, however, it is apparently necessary to point out that breaking windows and harassing our elected officials in their homes in the middle of the night contributes nothing to the cause of racial justice. And anyone who knew Helen Sommers will attest that she will haunt for the rest of their lives those who broke windows in the Capitol Campus building named in her honor.
Let there be art
Most nonprofits have had a very hard time in the last few months. The Thurston County Food Bank still needs more volunteers, and the lapse in the federal unemployment benefits is sending people off a financial cliff that will increase the demand for local help. Good thing our community has doubled down in its contributions to meet basic needs for food and rental assistance.
However, our arts and culture nonprofits are in perilous condition. Arbutus Folk School, which offered classes in ceramics, weaving, blacksmithing and wood turning, lost its revenue stream when it had to cancel its classes. It received federal Paycheck Protection Program Funding early in the pandemic, but those funds have been used up. It’s just now opening a small, socially distanced ceramics class, and considering whether to even try virtual classes. “I just don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to hang on,” says program administrator Pamela Davis.
It’s a tough time for the closed Harlequin Theater, too. The pain of laying off many of its employees was initially assuaged by knowing they would receive the extra federal unemployment benefit that has now evaporated. Marketing and communications director Helen Harvester said they are considering doing online performances, “but even that is a really hard thing to do safely, and also difficult because our mission is real live theater,” she said.
All the arts and cultural nonprofits that depend on earned income – the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, the Hands On Children’s Museum (just trying to reopen this weekend), the Olympia Symphony Orchestra, for instance – are struggling. So are artists and artisans whose outlets and markets have suffered.
Kris Tucker, a local arts activist and board secretary of Olympia Arts and Heritage Alliance points out that the local arts community also is challenged by the new urgency to work towards racial justice. That means building stronger connections among people of various cultures and ethnicities, diversifying arts organizations’ leadership, and reaching out to artists of color. This is harder to do virtually than in person, but that’s not stopping Tucker from trying.
While we continue to double down on contributions to meet our neighbors’ basic needs, we must not let up in our support for the local arts and culture nonprofits that help keep us sane.