Get Out There and Do Something!

Ok, think back to Little House in the Big Woods (and put aside what you have now learned about Laura Ingall's Wilder's internalized racism and other issues.) Think back to her story about how they lived on their own, but one night they all bundled into the wagon, and drove miles to someone's home, where the neighbors for miles around gathered, and the furniture was all pushed to the sides of the room, and Pa played the fiddle, and people danced, and the children fell asleep and were bundled into the wagons for the long long drive home. Think of how, as independent as those pioneers were, how much they needed that time together. Think of how they could likely not have faced the days of locust plagues, or the Long Winter, or selling off the horses, the other trials they faced, without nights like that.

That's where we are now.

We've forgotten how to go out, and enjoy art, and celebrate creation together. Theatres are struggling. Our favorite restaurants are closing. Tonight we went to the bar at the Apostle to see out friend Mike's friend Mia sing. The place was a ghost town, literally just us and a few Canadians. A few months back, you could not get in for love or money.

Look, I get it. We're all bone-achingly tired. Earlier today I said I was the kind of tired where "I don't want to just go to bed early, I want to go hibernate in a cabin for 2 months and not see anyone." But after a day of yoga, and a taproom, and a party, and the Apostle, I actually feel better. And I promise you that, once you get back in the habit of connecting in real life with other people, especially with some kind of creative element like theatre or music or film or other art, you'll feel better too.

So my challenge to you is to GO OUT. Go out at least once this week, preferable two or three or four times. Support the places you love — not just the new hot places, but the places you would miss if you were to lose them. Tell your friends about them. Let yourself have fun. And then report back how it was.