It’s amazing to me how quickly so many of us are turning to online socializing. Not to overstate it, but it’s a triumph of the human spirit, we’re fighting for our Right to Party!
I started PareaGroove Sunday and since then I’ve inspired two people, both college classmates who were on the first two Grooves, to take the idea and run with it. I had the one mini online class reunion on Tuesday, and now my friend Mark is having another class reunion tomorrow. Today PareaGroove held the first “Lunch Groove” at 1:00. A couple faithfuls who are coming to all the Grooves were there, but the mid-day timing also attracted a different crew. People came and went, and came back for a bit more. A number were working remotely and this provided them with a bit of a break during the day, and some kept our Groove on even after returning to their screens to work, checking in now then, sort of replicating an office environment, just a friendlier one. A lot of the conversation had to do with the recent press report by the president. Politics of course was part of the conversation, but a lot of it had to do with our hopes for some of the new treatments being proposed, as well as helping each other to manage our nervousness and discussing the facts and non-facts. A number of people preferred to keep their video feed off, but it didn’t matter, they chatted just as easily, and sometimes with the written chat on the side of the screen. We had mostly New Yorkers today, with one DC’er. Going forward I expect more time zone crosses for midday events.
Earlier today I was invited to an online arts event emanating from a live performance series that is obviously now postponed. I was looking forward to that and wondering about the hours to kill before it when, after returning from a short walk, I was invited to an impromptu happy hour by another classmate inspired by a Groove. It being Thursday at 5:00 we six, none of whom I’d met before, each had a glass in tow. We talked about the canceling of schools, how that was affecting a university professor, we talked about a doctor’s online consultations, and an accupuncturist’s recent trip, but not her likely drop in clientele. Then as we finished our drinks and left our screens to pour another it got more fun, we laughed more, talked about TV shows, concerts we’d seen, favorite bands, just normal party stuff. It started to feel normal, seeing each other in the group, enjoying our non verbal expressions, and I do talk with my hands. It was fun, relaxing, and almost “normal.”
Later this evening I attended the art event. I “arrived” a bit late and entered my first full up Zoom chat, with twenty-five on the page, not the Brady Bunch show opening effect of ten or fifteen. It didn’t take long to adjust, especially as my attention was drawn to the one square in the middle where a young man was playing Bach beautifully on a cello in his apartment in his shorts. We also heard from an accordion, some explanation of the instrument, a short talk from a composer and a piano playing heart surgeon, and more music from a violinist, a pianist and another cellist. It was a lovely evening, all of us, all ages, audience and performers, enjoying our in-the-moment time together from our little boxes. This is a new normal, it’s fun, and it has happened very, very fast.
