The long, slow reopen, and finding stories to tell

Happy Return to Normal Week! Except no, not really. Gov. Mike Parson's shelter in place order expired Monday morning at 12:01 a.m., and local government and businesses are slowly reopening, to get the economy going again while aiming to minimize risk of infection. I hope that's how it goes. I hope people continue to keep our distance from each other, wear our masks, wash our hands.

So where does that leave events?

I think it's fairly obvious that we're moving into a new normal. I keep seeing a meme online about how, as we rush back to normal, we need to be thoughtful about what we're rushing back to. I like that sentiment.

Some establishments are already making shifts, such as going smoke-free. Restaurants might rearrange seating temporarily, maybe permanently. Retail outlets might shuffle some operations. We just don't know yet. It's too early to know what stays and what goes.

Flexibility is important. Patience is important. We are all trying to figure out a fundamental change in how we think about everything.

For myself, at least, I'm going to watch for events to start popping back up on our calendar at www.semoevents.com, and trust that we will all do our best to help keep each other as safe as we can.

On to Mother's Day! It's this Sunday, and while the traditional restaurant-brunch might not be an option, a thoughtful gift, card, phone call, is at least possible, probably. Many shops are now open, or have curbside pickup options.

UJRO

The Uptown Jackson Revitalization Organization announced a fun event set for 10 a.m. Saturday until sold out, so get there early. The Jackson High School Agriculture Department will sell their remaining plants in front of the former Ross Furniture store at 116 S. High St. All merchants will be open, too.

Main Street Station

I don't know if you've been keeping up with the work Ron Taylor is doing at Main Street Station at 130 Main Street in downtown Cape Girardeau, giving out free meals, but John Krasinski, former star of NBC's "The Office," has a YouTube show called "SGN" for Some Good News. At the four-minute mark, you can see Ron all set up to give out free meals to the hungry: www.youtu.be/o1zIgTwENPg.

Here, have a link to the stories the excellent Rachael Long has written about Ron's work: www.semissourian.com/story/2682858.html.

Arts Council of Southeast Missouri

Speaking of downtown Cape Girardeau, if you find yourself near the Arts Council building at 16 North Spanish Street, stroll on by the Visual Art Cooperative window display to see paintings by Cape Girardeau artist Craig Thomas. The gallery is closed to the public, but the window display is ready for viewing.

Parks and playgrounds

A lot of public entities reopened Monday, but not all of them, and each county has its own guidance. Some cities have different levels of being reopened, too. It's best to check with the city or county before heading out, because the guidance is not the same across the board. Generally speaking, if social distancing is easily maintained, such as on a walking trail or the like, it's likely to be open, but swimming pools and playgrounds are likely still closed. Again, that's as of Wednesday afternoon, as I'm writing this, and that's not uniform across the board.

County and city websites probably have the information you seek. Check them out.

Cape Pride postponed

In case you missed it, Cape Pride (along with dozens of other events) is postponed until a later date, but they're working with Main Street Station in Cape Girardeau to provide meals for free. ALong similar lines, several food pantries and food drives are ramping up calls for donations to meet increased need, so if you can, think about donating.

Capturing stories

Last week, if you'll remember, I had a story on the TGI "F" page about Kent Library's project to capture stories of how COVID-19 is affecting Cape Girardeau area residents. This week, I'm featuring another project with a similar aim. World Tilted Productions is the brainchild of Sandra Newsome and Christy Mershon, both of whom are involved with Southeast Missouri State University's Continuing Education program, among other hats both wear.

Across the world, "we are all ingesting all of these news stories, political debates," Newsome said. "It's a huge thing. What about the personal stories?"

The first project for World Tilted is twofold: a podcast and a book, both collections of people from anywhere in the world telling their stories of how COVID-19 is affecting their lives.

Newsome said she is collecting stories now for an ebook she hopes to publish later this year -- a timely project that captures this moment.

"This is not a project I want to build just focused on this COVID catastrophe, but to start here," Newsome said.

Later, she hopes to follow up with people, several months out, and find what they've learned.

Mershon is working on the podcast angle. She has some experience at this: Last Halloween, she spearheaded "13 Corpses," a horror-themed podcast that she said she really enjoyed.

"My thing is stories. I love people's stories," Mershon said. "What I felt was getting lost in this is the individual stories. Ideally, we'd all be keeping a journal."

Mershon and Newsome both have contacts all over the globe, and those contacts all had experiences with COVID-19 that were similar but also different.

The survey on www.worldtiltedproductions.com is a tool to begin to look at who has interesting stories.

Why a podcast and a book?

"Some stories may lend themselves better to one platform or the other," Mershon said. "Sandra's the professional writer, I am fairly good at conversation. That's what we were thinking."

Neither plan to include any commentary on the stories, and both are looking for stories that capture the darker aspects of what people are experiencing now, as well. "I'd like to talk to people who have those negative feelings, be able to capture in their own words where the anger is coming from," Mershon said.

"We're not trying to encourage battles," Newsome added. "It's your personal stories."

And those stories will evolve in coming months, Mershon said.

"I'm hoping that if we are able to tell stories without subtext, storylines will begin to evolve organically," Mershon said.

That's important, because what the two are trying to capture is the on-the-ground experience of real people, through their own eyes, and the experiences people everywhere are having.

"I think these personal stories will help everyone to find relativity," Newsome said. "Maybe, hopefully, we can help to create more awareness of how similar and different our lives are."

More information is at www.worldtiltedproductions.com, and on Facebook.

Get your weekend plans delivered to your inbox. Sign up for the Expedition: Weekend email newsletter. Go to www.semissourian.com/newsletters to find out more.