Press the mute button!

It’s a time like no other. We’re experiencing things we never thought could be experienced. Life is changing before our very eyes, with each day bringing something new. People are frightened the world over. Understandably. If ever there was a time for Leadership, the time is now. And of course, many clichés are getting significantly more re-use as we struggle to comprehend what’s going on. I try to avoid clichés like the plague, but then it’s almost like a plague has descended upon us (sorry, couldn’t let that go!).  Two weeks…four weeks…three months…we’re really guessing at what time it’s going to take to start returning to ‘normal’. But what is normal? Will we ever get there? And how will we know? Strangeways, here we come.

Given all this uncertainty is there any hope, is there anything that we can latch on to? Something maybe that can lift us out of the worry, heartbreak and sadness that is happening everywhere, as we try to distance ourselves from each other in our kitchens and living rooms? Well perhaps there is, so let me share with you a wonderful bright spot that has happened this past week, which in itself will change many people and I hope give hope to many more.

Many of you will be aware that I attend Irish Set Dancing Therapy classes every week, as this is a recognised treatment for people with Parkinson’s Disease. With the impact of the Corona virus, and Covid19 specifically, all gatherings of people in groups of 2 or more are prohibited. It’s a drastic but understandable measure. But it really is drastic because we can’t Dance in our group anymore. We met for what turned out to be the last time a couple of weeks ago. There was a general air of sadness and upset - perhaps even more so when Pat, Joe and myself started to talk about moving the class online! ‘What, on the computer? No!’ ‘You mean like a video or something? That’ll never work!’ ‘I don’t know anything about computers, I just have my phone’. These were some of the comments that we heard, comments we couldn’t ignore. As we left Bellarmine in Sandyford, Co. Dublin that morning I have to say I wasn’t very hopeful that we would ever get anywhere with our ‘Dancing online’ plans.

But I always believe in people and I think people are great! Change is hard, very hard in the best of circumstances; but it would appear that change when faced with extreme situations, is, whoo-hoo!, possible. What has changed and has happened over the past short week is incredible! It is joyful! And it’s moving. And believe it or not we’re back moving!  With the technological ingenuity of Joe, the commitment and tenacity of Pat, the clear directions of Noreen and Mary, and a huge amount of help from everybody in the group, we faced down this online ‘barrier’ and instead embraced the technology opportunity in front of us. And it worked! And it’s continuing to work! We are using a meeting platform called ‘BlueJeans’. We have pretty much moved everyone on ‘WhatsApp’ to the PC/Laptop version. And we’ve danced our feet off several days this week with nothing but smiles all round! We’ve even figured out the power of the mute button! ‘Would you please mute, whoever is listening to the flipping radio?!’ ‘Gary, I can see you but I haven’t a clue what you’re saying – you need to unmute!’ ‘Would everyone please mute their microphones, I can’t hear myself think with all this noise!’

Yes, it’s been a fantastic week. People are chatting confidently about BlueJeans and really, they fit comfortably (sorry!!). Pat has put together a wonderful video where he takes us through each of the exercises and moves that we then spend our time practising together in class – online! We’ve set a course of meeting three times a week for a shorter period, and we’ll build that up over time. But the most incredible thing of all is this: we have more people attending class now, online, than we’ve had in our weekly sessions when we were together in our group, in person! I just can’t contain myself on this one - it’s just amazing! The implications of this are enormous, but I’ll leave that to another time. Suffice to say, people are great!

We are facing unprecedented challenges, but this past week gives me enormous hope that we really can do stuff together that perhaps we thought we couldn’t do. I saw very happy people this week, online of course! I’m pretty confident that I’m going to see more of this happiness next week too. We can do this, I know we can! A bit like Dancing as if no one can see you, we’re all capable of the right moves that can influence others, change lives, and bring tears of joy. 

Let’s give this a lash!

Gary xxxx