I started re-evaluating my relationship with Zoom. It wasn’t Zoom’s fault. Zoom had been loyal and reliable. I didn’t want to leave Zoom for another platform, just another medium, like, maybe a book. As I was about to engage Zoom with the, “It’s not you, it’s me” approach, I had a realization; zoom is the only thing that gives me a connection, however tenuous, to other people.
From my own work creating original theater with, and about, the real lives of older adults, I know firsthand that the research is correct. It is the social interaction part of arts education that is of the greatest physical and mental benefit to older adults.
John Prine died this past week — a victim of Covid19. "Hello in There" is being performed and shared again, and is a potent reminder of the toll this pandemic is taking on older adults in particular — and it is a call for us all to reach out.
