When the curtain falls, what’s there to fall back on?

It’s going to be an interesting year, to say the least. Half of me wants to break out and boldly go places, and the other half of me wants to stay in my protective cocoon.

I went to a last-minute concert at Washington Park last Tuesday and enjoyed being out and about, listening to great music and seeing friends I hadn’t seen for a while. I was the only one wearing a mask, which made me feel kind of silly, but given I’m the target market for the coronavirus, I guess feeling silly is a small price to pay.

How many of our leisure and social events will be available for us, and when will they open up? Sports, concerts, theater, parties … all those things we do as a group activities are either on hold or canceled indefinitely. So much money is spent on and in the entertainment industry, and so many other industries depend on that industry to be healthy.

I know I feel the biggest loss when I think about the theaters being closed and all the people who are out of work or out of a valued hobby for those of us who do community theater.

I’m hoping we can do a show at the WOWSPACE this fall, but everything else is canceled, and who knows what things will be like this fall? I do know that if we don’t have a show, I’ll have plenty of time on my hands, and probably nothing to do.

My emails are full of announcements of seasons being canceled by all the places I’ve attended the past couple of years. Some people go to sporting events; some go to concerts. My outlet is definitely the theater, and most of them have been in the Twin Cities.

When I lived there, I didn’t go to that many shows; time and money were always my enemies. Now that I’m over three hours away, I seem to manage several trips a year, and my entire entertainment budget consists of those trips.

With everything else going on and life changing daily, I didn’t notice so much of what I was missing. It was only when the reality set in that there will be no shows for me to see in the near future that I started to get bummed out. I might actually have to get myself a different hobby.

Having said that, I realize that could be a problem. I’m not crafty or handy or good at math, so there will be no card making or birdhouse building or quilting in my future. That leaves me with limited options. Facebook is filled with tutorials full of the endless uses for the inside of the toilet paper roll. Why is that? How many uses can there be, and why would any of us want to spend any time doing them? They look like preschool projects that will only find a home in the trash. I’m a little embarrassed to admit I’ve wasted a lot of time watching the videos.

How could I have gotten to this great age and not have a couple of hobbies to fall back on? I suppose it was because I was too busy acting in, watching or directing plays. It’s all very time consuming, but when you’re in the middle of it all, it seems to go by so quickly.

When I first moved back home, I had grand ideas of what I was going to do with all my free time. Dad’s lathe is in the basement. With a little instruction and a lot of wood, I could have a ton of great bowls and walking sticks to sell.

I inherited my aunt’s card stamping supplies and her Kitchenaid mixer, so there was the possibility of creating my own line of hilarious greeting cards and pastries to go with them. The books that followed me home combined with those already here make for an eclectic library; surely a book club would be in order.

I’m willing to bet that none of those ideas will come to fruition, but I’m OK with that. It’s not the end of the world, but it sure does feel that way.

Miriam Nelson is the news editor of the Wittenberg Enterprise and Birnamwood News. Readers can contact her at mnelson@newmedia-wi.com.

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