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Bloodlines
online literary magazine
Trinidad State Home
Bloodlines
2020 K-12 ARCHIVE
The Least We Can Do…
by Dustin Hyman
How are you?
Suddenly, this question has greater significance: “Pretty good,” “great,” “living the dream,” no longer make sense within the context of a pandemic. “Making the best of it,” “trying to stay safe,” “losing my F#@%!*G mind!” better reflect how times have changed recently. We have adopted new language— “social distancing,” “flattening the curve,” “Covid -19”—to cope with new realities. Prior to March of 2020, the word “pandemic” didn’t really affect me. For me, pandemic was always reserved for history lessons or “developing nations.”
Art helps. I’m not saying to become an artist—it doesn’t suit everyone. But art can be almost anything, even fixing the garbage disposal. In my estimation, art is something a person does that others can appreciate and potentially benefit from. I hope you take a few minutes to appreciate TSJC’s Creative Writing Competition winners. Our local students, ranging from kindergarten to seniors in high school, took time to express themselves in very creative and entertaining ways. 2020 will be remembered for a pandemic, but we will also look back and see an explosion of artwork.
Major news outlets continue to broadcast death tolls and unemployment figures. Behind these astonishing numbers, emerging from various fissures of the internet, artists bloom. These amazing people, both locally and from distant places, have taken ugly circumstances and created beautiful songs, strange poems, and hilarious videos. Find artists and support them. Be one, if you can.
As we struggle to reimagine our previous routines, the least we can do is be aware—be aware of how we spend our time and who is helping. Like Mr. Rodgers said, “look for the helpers.”
By the way, how are you?
