Photo: Jessica Cao
Monday marks the beginning of the first week of the new normal. No more frenzy around setting yourself up to work from home and making sure you have sufficient access to coffee, internet, hand soap, and, yes, toilet paper. Hopefully, everyone who doesn’t absolutely have to go to work is self-isolating at home by now, and getting pretty used to it, too. It is also my hope that you are managing to turn away from the news a bit and try to set aside some part of the day to focus on things that aren’t terror-inducing. I can’t go so far as to say that there’s anything good about what’s happening to us, but I will point out that it is an opportunity to geek out and learn something new. I for one am trying to teach myself to play the guitar I’ve been lugging around from apartment to apartment for a decade, and Brooklyn Brainery has a schedule of online virtual courses available on topics like food writing, investing, astrology, and mixology. Brooklyn Zen Center is hosting virtual meditation sessions every day, and my regular yoga/barre/pilates spot has entered the online services realm as well. If these guys have managed to pivot to virtual offerings so quickly, I’m sure that many other innovative creative ways for businesses like this to stay afloat are in the works, and it’s impressive as hell and worth taking advantage of. Basically, if you have something you’ve always wanted to immerse yourself in, there probably is or will soon be a way to do it while social distancing, as long as you make the time and accept that the execution might be a little different than you imagined.