So … people are popping up doing a new kind of “live theatre” .. basically streaming from their homes to yours while we all wait this out.

The thing I have always loved about live theatre is the campfire aspect. Fiona Shaw came and talked in one of my classes once, and this was what stuck with me all these years: it’s embedded deep in our dna, whatever people are your particular ancestors, somewhere wayyy back, we all had a common practice of stories.
The warriors would come back and enact how they killed the dangerous animal. The healers would dance about rain, calling in the seasons, giving thanks, or maybe calming the people that abundance would come again, that things are cyclical.
We’d gather around fires when the dark seemed too full of dangers. We’d be together, and the stories would teach and bring our hearts and minds warmth and connection.

People did a study and found that an audience’s heartbeats synch up during a live performance.

We need each other – connection – to remind us that it’s not one in danger, defending their resources against a savage world – to remind us that we are united, that we’re not alone when there are harsh realities to face.

We may have gone very far from the village. We may feel more isolated now than ever before, but the village is in each of us, if we choose to remember. Ubuntu – common humanity – I am well because the village is well, if one is not well, and I can help, I help.

There are people who have forgotten, and they’re like feral cats, in instinct and attack. Don’t think they’re all of us. I hope that those people can be healed, but at this time, don’t approach the ones who are out of their minds in fear. Just silently bless from a distance and focus on the good.
Look for the ones giving theatre from their homes, or music, or art, or story, or words of hope.

Feed the hope-light in you, not the fear-light. Stay safe but unafraid. There are good people everywhere,

And we’ve gotten through some gnarly times- we can get through them again.

❤️ (Here’s an old photo of a maggid story by the fire, a man paddling a pumpkin – Ludwigsberg pumpkin festival in Germany – and Chewbacca thinking about climbing a wall. Just to remind us all that we are collectively weird and lovely)