All over the Internet there are recommendations for supporting one another — our local businesses, our neighbors, ourselves.
For businesses, there are simple suggestions — for example, passing the word if local businesses have new COVID-19 policies and new services tailored to the coronavirus world. There are also suggestions for patronizing “closed” businesses such as ordering online, and buying gift certificates for future meals or performances.
The National Trust has a swing-around-the-country compendium of commercial adaptations during COVID-19. In Boston, there is a post on Instagram, frequently updated, about which businesses are open and which closed.
Elsewhere, businesses are retooling to produce facemasks and facemask kits (if you prefer to make your own). In Michigan there is a concerted and optimistic effort to support local businesses by posting reviews online.
Communities all over the country are creating new web pages that inform. Most provide COVID-19-related information plus links to virtual entertainment.
“Virtual” is the word of the hour. There is virtual everything from museum tours to theatrical performances to dating. All over the country, there are virtual events one can “attend.” In Oklahoma a toy store is offering virtual events for children.
From Wisconsin to Georgia, Maine to California, businesses are encouraging sidewalk art in front of their stores, and artwork to post in their windows. There is a site that offers suggestions on how to create the sidewalk and storefront artwork. (Go to COVID-19 Community Response) pitch in and take part.
A swing around Berkshire County shows initiative and spirit. A win-win project in South County feeds those who need it with meals prepared by local restaurants. Local distilleries are producing hand sanitizer. OLLI is open for business via the Internet with many good teachers and interesting subjects. (I will teach a course on early Berkshire history). In the window of a closed store on Main Street, Stockbridge, a sign reads, “we are family.”
Businesses are not the only entities that need support in this new landscape. So do people. The abrupt end to common forms of social interaction is a loss to all of us. Once, greeting by touching, attending large gatherings and just talking face to face were common. The absence of hugging or shaking hands, attending business meetings or dinner parties, and “reading” facial expressions is a loss to all of us. Just as with the economy, the longer the social shutdown, the harder it becomes.
There are ways we can help one another. Arrange to walk with a friend. Both the exercise and the company are restorative. Virtual meetings are an attempt at “normal” but are qualitatively different. As the weather warms, meet outside and, from a safe distance, talk face to face.
Arrange a dinner party. In the nation’s capital, they have “Porch Happy Hour.” Neighbors arrange a time to order dinner and eat on porches, balconies and stoops. They dine together from a safe distance. In New York City, daily at 7 p.m., people step out on balconies, roofs or stoops and make a noise meant as a “thank you” to all essential workers.
In Stockbridge, a suggestion was made for a new way to “say hello” to neighbors. At a specific time on an agreed-upon day, everyone goes outside and hollers, bangs a drum or otherwise makes a noise. The cacophony is the new “meet and greet.”
There is another thing we all might do: be aware. There are those asked to stay home who do not have a home, do not have a safe or adequate home. There are some isolated at home who are frail or otherwise unable to do for themselves all the things necessary. We can consider who they might be and what we might do. In helping others, we often help ourselves. In finding purpose and a rewarding activity, we thrive.
It is hard to know where businesses will be when this is over. Will some businesses be able to open sooner because social distancing is possible? Will others find it impossible to open because being close is an integral part of the activity? Will all our local businesses survive? Will any do business in the same way?
And what of us? Will all of us survive? Will we live as we did before? Will we resume hugging and shaking hands or will we be leery of contact? Even if businesses open, will we go to restaurants and theaters? Will we send our children to team sports, playgrounds and camps? Will we want to see each other’s faces? Or will we, out of an abundance of caution, maintain distance, stay close to home and wear masks? We cannot know.
For now, in the current circumstance, we can just do our best. Lend support to businesses and to each other. Do all we can to stay well ourselves and be inventive. Discover that fears and anxieties may lessen when thinking about and helping others.
