Mike Who Is My Neighbor & Life in 2020 (Part 2)
We will each remember life 2020 in sweeping terms of world-wide or nation-wide events that share many resemblances: stay-at-home orders, Black Lives Matter vigils and protests, mask wearing (or not). Broad pandemic stories will take shape around similar (if opposite) news threads. On the personal level, however, we will remember that life in 2020 pressed up against these larger narratives in countless, very individual ways. How many wedding, birth, funeral, graduation, new job, change-of-address stories will, in recounting, have to acknowledge the lived impact of this year by including the words “In 2020”?Mike, who is my neighbor, and his wife Mayte, have their own story about life in 2020. Here are Mike's words from our recorded conversation back in late November 2020. As a reminder, Mike and Mayte moved into the house that makes them my neighbors in February, 2020.
First home, First pandemic
“We moved in here and did all this work. Two weeks later we are dealing with Covid. Covid is just happening. We don't know what to think of it. It seems very dangerous. But I didn't miss a single day at work. I actually got busier. For me it led to a promotion and it led to a lot of security for us because I was just really busy. I'm still very busy, you know, very busy. I'm non-stop... It's just busy.“I work in fulfillment, all the orders and stuff, for the online division of Costco. So, you know, if you buy something online from Costco.com we have to fill those orders. I'm out of Mira Loma, and we’re mainly apparel and vitamins and stuff like that, over-the-counter products like nasal sprays. We didn't have too much of the simple items, but we had some of some of them. We had a lot of wipes and Clorox and toilet paper. And you know, people went crazy. It was hard to manage. “But it’s good because we can help, you know. We can go to work, we can stay motivated. I'm good at my job and they appreciate me and I never, never missed a second. There was never a conversation about not working."Mike is one of several of my neighbors working longer and harder because of the Covid-19 Pandemic. My husband Ken and several of our neighbors continue working, but as Zoom Nation habitués. I know that a few neighbors are retired. But writing this at the beginning of this project, I realize just a bit more of what I do not know. I don’t know what work and income changes other neighbors have experienced.
Life is Improv
“I would say that 2020 has been good to us. It shouldn't be because of all the stuff and, you know, I'm very apologetic for the people that have lost loved ones. I get it, you know. I shouldn't be...I shouldn't, you know, be saying this year was a good thing, but…”Hearing Mike’s hesitation and sensing his care with words, I respond, “Well, sometimes you get to carry both. You get to have a sense of gratitude and,” Mike jumps back in, “Right! That’s why I’m happy. I’m thankful to be able to be a part of, you know, being there.”There are many things that I love about this art practice. Here is one: In my first ever meeting with Mike, we two strangers stand on the sidewalk one late November afternoon and practice the time-honored art of conversation. From moment to moment we take our cues from one another, listening and speaking, speaking and listening. Reading the energy of the other, trying to sense the other’s intent and meaning. Our interaction is organic. Life really is improv.
Thankful in a Modest Way
I ask Mike, “All your people are ok?”“Yeah. Some people have it way worse than I do. That’s why I’m kinda thankful, grateful that I haven’t had any losses from Covid. My grandmother is 98, and she’s been in quarantine the whole time. She has dementia so she doesn’t know. But my mom’s been taking care of her. My sister’s a physician and she’s never been busier. Life is turbulent for them, and I haven’t seen them since Covid. It’s just different. Yeah. “So I’m thankful in a modest way.”Like Mike, I have moments of feeling thankful in a modest way. Waking up next to my true love. Sipping my morning chai. Watching dawn color the sky. Walking with my sister. Waving to the little girls across the street. Listening to my neighbors. Meeting you here.Ordinary gifts. Common miracles. They warm us even as another icy wave of horrifying news breaks. We can pocket these soft lumpy miracles even as we shoulder our sharp shock and disbelief. We can reach into our pockets and touch the talismans of our humanity—we can be thankful in a modest way. A tiny radical move such as this can, and often does, buoy us to the surface after we're flooded with despair. At the surface we can find focus and energy to engage in positive, life-affirming ways. One way to do this is to find your own answers to the question, Who Is My Neighbor?Once again, feel free to use any ideas here in your own socially engaged art practice. If you'd like to share your story of life in your house in 2020, the comments for this are open for the next few weeks. Or, you can email me directly.Thank you for being my online neighbor.