A Vaccine of Generosity
It’s 2020 and we find
ourselves in a society of panic, anxiety and disease. To put it lightly, it’s
not quite the 2020 in which we all expected to be memorably filled with cheer
and unity. However from my experience, it has been a year filled with
kindness-the purest form of medicine.
Understandably,
everyone around the globe is focused on finding a vaccine. A vaccine to end
the despair and bring back our under appreciated ‘normal’ lives. I’m 16. I’m a
student. I’m a young woman still learning how to take on the world and make a
difference for our generation. So, to me the idea of personally finding a vaccine
is impossible. I’ll leave that up to the talented professors and scientists
around our world! The more realistic role I have chosen to take on is
distributing shots of generosity around my family and close community. I
believe that there is no purer and more effective cure for disaster than small
acts of generosity.
You may not be able
to help all 7.594 billion people inhabiting our earth, but you can help 1.
Personally, I live in a small rural village in a very open and
community-spirited Street. Almost like a large family who have each other’s
backs at all costs. Even in the most difficult of times, we smile and yap,
bringing some well needed sunshine into each other’s day. We pull together and
somehow, it all just works. That is the spirit in which we need to survive the
COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the prolonged weeks of lockdown, our neighbours
have been kindly sharing delectable baking experiments and even serenading the
street with musical performances from the decades. Yes, it is that simple. That
is all it takes. One slice of cake...one tune on the guitar...to make someone’s
day. So far we have devoured and delivered cream horns, Victoria sponge,
Nutella cheesecake, muffins and even good Scottish shortbread. It seems we are
all embracing our inner Mary Berry’s to bring a smile to our friends and
neighbours.
As
part of Bunbury Banter’s Playwrights Programme in the year so far, I have also
experienced the strongest forms of generosity through the form of theatre. We
virtually meet weekly to discuss and compare views on all media’s of theatre
making, developing our own ideas as well as confidence. Everyone puts aside
time for each other in the group each week. A flavour of consistency in a world
of uncertainty. We have been lucky enough to recently take part in a workshop
with Douglas Maxwell, an inspiration to any aspiring playwright. His generosity
came delivered to us in the form of a motivating and uplifting workshop filled
with intriguing questions, themes and words of wisdom. I have taken a lot out
of this workshop. So much so, I have began to fuse together my daily life with
the world of theatre. This has allowed me to embrace my surroundings, using
them to my advantage in encouraging others to do the same.
Last month, each playwright has also been working closely and intensely with an experienced script reader with the intention of developing our own monologue. This has been an extremely enlightening experience which has developed my own confidence. The success of the developments are thanks to Alexandros Balamotis and his generosity towards my playwrighting journey.
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