I know I’m not the only person who has done it. Mine might not be the worst I’ve seen. It’s definitely not the best. Once it hit 75 degrees outside I really needed to get some of the extra hair off my head and I pulled out the clippers and … well … since my goal was to cool off a bit as it got warmer, I’ll consider it a success. If I weren’t being physically distant from people and wanted to look good in public, that might be another story. This is the nature of the CoronaCut (n. - short for “coronavirus haircut.” A haircut done at home by someone in your household or yourself because barbers, salons, etc. are closed during the stay at home order).
This is one of just a few adjustments many of us are making. This one happened to have a comical outcome (some people might consider it tragic, but I really don’t care much about my hair.) It is of the same order as CoronaGut (the widening of my waistline because of excessive snacking at home) and CoronaTime (the nebulousness caused by the lack of regular daily routine, and the reason this blog is coming out on Friday instead of Thursday).
Other adjustments have really altered the way we work and live. The one that has made the biggest impact on my day to day life is how we put together worship each week. I’ve spent my whole career talking about how important it is to sing together during worship. Not just for the choir or the band to sing together, but for the whole congregation. There is a visceral feeling we get from singing with a group of people, and it is difficult to replace virtually.
As part of our liturgy, the music is meant to be one of the things that brings our hearts and minds together in worship, using our full bodies and breath to sing the same words from our cores. And not everybody is as comfortable breaking into song in the middle of their living room as I am. For the last few weeks, instead of trying to exactly replace the singing, I’ve been trying to use special offerings along with hymns and songs we know really well to bring us together. I know it isn’t the same as feeling the rumble in your chest when you are singing along with people next to you and you have great leadership from the singers at the front of the room. But I know our hearts and minds are together because we’ve made such a great effort to put our worship together and you all have taken the time to worship with us from home. It is so nice when it is all finished to go through and look at the live comments to see how everyone has interacted with each other while worship is streaming.
We’ll keep making adjustments. Each week I learn some new bit of technology trying to figure out what is going to work best for our worship and workflow. Sometimes it is great. Sometimes I learn that a half second transition in a video ends up taking an extra hour and a half for the computer to process. *cough* Easter Sunday *cough*. Some folks have stepped forward to share their musical gifts, which makes it easier for me to spend time on other parts of worship. I love that innovation is coming out of a difficult situation and that we have opportunities to grow together and as individuals.
But I can’t wait to be together again. I miss everyone and I miss singing together and even though I’m an introvert who is happy to be home most of the time, I miss getting to chat with you before and after worship. And also, I miss having a professional cut my hair. Hopefully someone can fix it before we see each other in person again.
Disheveledly yours,
John Johns