Creativity in a Time of Need
Emily Apuzzo Hopkins | March 16, 2020
Over the past few weeks, the world has been plummeting into where we find our current reality - what the World Health Organization has deemed a pandemic.
It has been politicized, it has been followed, it has been commented on. Links to trusted scientific articles and memes about toilet paper purchasing habits fill up social media feeds. And regardless of what those comments are, the truth of this pandemic marches forward with no care for the commentary surrounding it.
So, where do I even begin? Well, I would have to say we already have. Whether we have been a passive spectator or an active voice, we are on a trajectory. Models and charts suggest that if we continue in this way or that way, X is the result we can anticipate. If we put in some effort to mitigate the spread, we will be lucky to receive Y.
I see posts from friends whose entire careers have been put on hold… musicians and teachers.
My musician friends are watching their incomes being pulled out from under them. Some have networks to support them during this time, while others will have to push away the rubble of this earthquake in the months, and potentially years, to come.
My teacher friends - and all of the teachers for whom I serve during my current role - are being asked to pull together materials for e-learning. Some for a few weeks’ worth of time and now some are being told they will not see their students again until September.
In both scenarios, we are dealing with strikingly different outcomes. The latter receive salaries for their work and usually have health insurance attached to these careers. But the former… the former are hurting. And they are not even close to the only ones. Everybody will suffer.
As I was trying to figure out what I wanted to write, my brain was going in all sorts of directions. I could not reign in the ideas before sitting down. So I did the only thing I knew to do - write anyway. Even now, after every sentence, I pause... because I too, am curious where this is going.
While I have established that we have already begun, and in some cases taken a few steps, I would like to take a page out of the musician’s (and hell, the teacher’s) handbook. It is time for us to improvise. It is time for creativity to remind us that necessity is the mother of all invention. We must find inspiration during dark times. We must think outside the box. We must maintain hope.
When Olivier Messiaen was held captive as a German prisoner of war during World War II, somehow… somehow he wrote music. Its title is ominous and the music is arguably more so, but the point is the next step he took was toward a creative pursuit - he knew no other way.
I beg us all to look at what is being laid before us and choose one of creativity. Creativity out of necessity. Creativity out of inspiration. Maintain some shred of normalcy during this crisis. And if you have never considered yourself a creative person - now is the time, my friends.
