 Welcome to Longmont Voices and Vision, a project of Longmont public media. In the midst of the darkest period in our lives, when we're bombarded 24 hours a day with news of the coronavirus and the human and economic carnage it's causing in our society, we're challenged to cope with our fears and anxieties, we're remaining hopeful about what lies on the other side of this crisis. This project presents an opportunity for Longmont residents to share with others how they're adjusting to new realities of social distancing and the kind of future they hope to experience on the other side of the crisis. I'm Tim Waters, host of these conversations in a Longmont public media volunteer. In this series I'll be asking Longmont residents, many of them your friends and neighbors, three questions. What are you doing to get through this crisis? Even though we cannot be together right now, how are we staying connected to friends and families? And what's the future you are hoping to see and experience on the other side of this crisis? I hope you'll stay with this series and enjoy listening to your friends and neighbors and learn from them how they're getting through and what they're looking forward to in a new reality on the other side. Monica Fitzpatrick, thank you for your contribution to this Longmont Voices in Vision project. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. Each of these interviews have started by learning something about the interviewee. So tell us about you, who you are and what you do in Longmont, and then we'll get into the questions I'm going to ask. Sure. I am an educator, a yoga teacher, and a small business owner. I am two small businesses here in Longmont, one elevated yoga studio here in downtown Longmont, where we do a gentle therapeutic style of yoga. And then I also run kid programs in our schools. My largest customer is the business is Muka, and the largest customer is St. Rain Valley schools. So I provide yoga services that teach self-regulation skills, attention skills, body awareness, mental awareness to our youth. Very cool. Thanks for those contributions to our community, especially our youngest residents. So, you know, I'm going to ask three questions, and the first of these three questions starts with, in a time that we're all experiencing a set of conditions that none of us have ever experienced before, with all the unknowns and the fears that go along with those unknowns. How are you getting yourself through this extraordinary moment in history? Yeah, it was a roller coaster of emotions and experience for sure. The uncertainty in the beginning was very challenging. So it felt like all the pieces of my life have fallen. And without my control, it kind of proves the impermanence of our lives. And getting through it by, so everything fell on what was replaced was a men's gratitude for all the things that I still do have. I'm very fortunate. I have a lovely home that I adore and people that I love. And so really of getting through it by self-care, turning inward. And we've all been forced inside of our homes. So the opportunity to turn inward and look at myself and, and care for myself so that I can go and care for others after this. So a lot of meditating, a lot of cooking. We've been cooking so much more, eating at the table so much more than we used to. Making art, reading, all this stuff for myself here. Well, in addition to getting yourself through this unprecedented period, we're in a time where we physically can't be together, where we were physically separated and socially distanced. None of us have experienced this. So during this period of time, in addition to taking care of yourself, we try to stay connected to friends and family. How are you staying connected to your friends and family? It's been challenging. I see a lot of people each week or had been going into the schools, into the studio, seeing a lot of students, seeing a lot of other educators. And then overnight, all of that changed. And it was a large loss that I had to grieve. I felt like grief. And shifting and doing a lot of Zoom, obviously a lot of internet connecting, but you have to be really intentional about it is what I feel. I saw a lot of people in my day to day before this happened. And so I really took that for granted and intentionally meet them where they were. I just was, I was just arriving there. And now looking back, I'm being more intentional about who I'm contacting when using technology to do that, but really making a point to check in with, with all of the people in my life that are close to my heart. Which is a theme for a lot during these interviews. And as you're doing those things, staying connected to friends and family and taking care of yourself, we're also anticipating what we'll see on the other side of this and experience on the other side of this pandemic and the stay at home orders with which we're all living right now. So assuming the presumption that underlies the third question is that whatever life is on the other side of the pandemic, it will be different than it was before. Whatever the new normal is, it won't quite be the same. So understanding that none of us knows what the new normal will be. We can talk about what we'd like to see and experience and help create. So for you, what would be your preferred future in the new normal and create normal? I don't think like, do we want to go back to the way it was? Maybe not. I felt, so I felt like all the pieces fell and we are given an opportunity now to put them back better. I hope people come out of their homes more kind, more aware, more intentional about how they spend their money, how they spend their time to really need all that busyness in our life. So really picking and choosing what matters after everything fell. And you still have your home and your health and your family going, when we leave our homes, what is it that we really need? And I think it's going to be people and connections. It's going to be experiences. I can't wait to hug people again. But maybe we really didn't need so much stuff. And it was the people that we needed. So I'm, I'm optimistic that people are going to come out of this more kind. So one another. Well, Monica, that is a worthy aspiration and a future to look forward to. Yeah. Thank you for, again, for what you do in the community. And thank you for your contribution to this project. Keep yourself healthy and safe. And when we are able to come out of our homes, I'm looking forward to our paths crossing in real time. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Take care. Thank you for your contributions to this long month voices and vision project. Each of these interviews have started by learning something about the people being interviewed. So tell us about you, who you are and what you do in the community. So we have an idea of who we're hearing from. Well, thanks, Tim. And thanks for interviewing me. I appreciate you taking the time to do this project. I think it's an important one. I am a native of Longmont and have lived here all my life was born here, graduated from Longmont High, graduated from CU. I worked for the state chamber of commerce for a number of years before retiring was on the city council for eight years until I was term limited. I'm married, have two grown sons, four grandsons and one granddaughter. And I spend my time now. I have, I'm on two different boards, one, the Longmont United hospital foundation board. And then I'm also on the hover communities board. That's a new board that I just took on. And so that's who I am. All right. Before I ask my first question. I want to say as numb, I haven't been wearing a city council hat on these interviews. I'm a volunteer for long public media, but both with my citizen head on and my council head on how much I appreciate your years of service and to the council. Cause I know what that requires of people. And that's a, that's a major commitment for eight years of your life. To the residents of Longmont. So it was, it was my privilege to serve. I know it's a privilege to serve, but that's still a heck of a commitment. So thank you for that as well. So with that, my first question is this. We're going through something none of us have ever experienced before. Right. We're learning our way forward. And in this time, there's a ton of unknowns and the anxieties that go with the unknowns and a lot of worst fears that come along with that. So in the midst of all that, people are having to figure out how to get through this, this period of stay at home or safe at home, what kind of in between stay at home and safe at home during this, at this moment on this afternoon. But in this time, how are you getting yourself through this? Well, my husband and I have been married for over 40 years. And so this is really the first time we have spent this much time. That's probably the biggest adjust adjustment that we've had to make. At first, you know, you hear about the Corona virus and it's in China. And you think, Oh, that's terrible. And then you hear about it in Italy. Oh my gosh, you know, I've always wanted to go to Italy and now will I ever get to. And then it came to the United States and then to our community and really, I think at first you're just kind of in shock because we've never experienced a pandemic in my lifetime that has affected our community like this. And so the first thing you do is, Oh, do I have everything I need? You know, do I have masks? Do I have hand sanitizer, toilet paper? Everybody's hoarded the toilet. Make sure that you have it, you know, groceries in the house so that you don't have to go out and how do you get those groceries? I had ordered groceries online before from Whole Foods. So I was pretty adept at getting things here without having to go out, which is good because I hit that magic 65 numbers a year. So I, you know, I need to be careful. And, and I have a 95 year old father and I certainly don't want to, you know, I need to make sure he's safe as well. So at first you make sure that you're okay in your house, you have everything you need. And then it's like, what do I need to get to my dad to make sure he's okay? The rest of the family, how are they? What can we do? What can we do for our neighbors? You might not have everything they need because as, as I might be 65, my neighbors are 75 and 85. And how can we help the neighbors? You know, one of the first things I did was organize a virtual, not a virtual, a social distancing cocktail party for the neighbors. So I have this giant driveway and we marked off every six feet, you know, and brought there whenever they were drinking or eating. And, and we had a nice chat and really during this time, we've spent more time talking with our neighbors than we have in years because they're the only ones we can talk to, right? They're the only ones we get to see in person anyway. So I've enjoyed that time with the neighbors. We live by McIntosh Lake. So we walk down there frequently to get some exercise, try to get exercise, get outside at least a little bit every day. And have seen more neighbors, you know, on that side of our neighborhood that we haven't seen in a long time. So even though we're far apart and wearing masks, it's nice to see people. It's nice to see who, you know, it's interesting to see who you recognize with the mask. Because, and it's interesting to see how everybody, you know, the community, I was on council when the flood came and it was, it was great to see how the community came together to help other people. They're doing the same thing now. You know, we have people who are making masks. We have people who are donating PPEs. We have people who are donating food for the hospital workers at Longmont United. I know that's a big deal. Crocs gave them all shoes. So the community is, you know, in all respects is we're all helping each other, which I love to see. You don't, you know, we get so polarized in politics, especially that it's great when you can see people from all walks of life helping. I think that's, that's the most heartwarming thing for me. You also time with reading books. I finished reading a book, Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin. If you haven't read that, you should read it. I have it right next to my, my pillow. It is, it's, it's an awesome book. And it made me see some of the people she talks about in a different light. And I really appreciated the way it was written. And after reading it, you can see. Leaders across the spectrum and which ones have that magic leadership sparkle in those that don't, you know, it's pretty obvious. It really is. This is certainly a turbulent time. And I think there are leaders who shine. And there are leaders who haven't shown, you know, so. Well, you have earlier in your response, you started to answer some of my second question. And that is in this time of, of being physically separated and socially distanced, how are you staying connected to family and friends? So you just talked a little bit about that in terms of the, the driveway cocktail party and those kinds of things. But what else should we know about how you're staying connected with family and friends? Well, we have had FaceTime cocktail parties with my husband's brother's family in California. We get on FaceTime and we all chat. You actually have had better conversations with them than we normally do just because we're, you know, making sure they're okay and, and their kids are okay. And my other son lives in Kishinaw Moldova. So we're, we're used to communicating long distance with him and his, and his children as well. We've learned how to use Marco Polo. I don't know if you know that app. But we've been doing that frequently. Kurt and I both, my husband and I both did a history lesson for the grandsons in Moldova. Kurt talked about Pearl Harbor and I talked about the computer age, the advancement of the computer age, which is not a subject that I'm particularly versed in, but it was fun, did research for it, you know, and then recorded it for the kids. And I think they, it gives them a little break in, in, in that kind of thing. So yeah, I'm learning how to use Zoom. I've had Zoom, Zoom board meetings for, for all my committees and things like that. Are you still, are you still learning how to use Zoom? Do you have, do you speak to them? Do you have, do you speak to them? Um, Funny text messages, you know, from, from people that you don't hear from that often, but you, you would have talked to, you know, just little quirky things that keep, uh, you know, try to keep your spirits up with funny things that happen in the day. And, and I think in having to stay apart an interesting phenomenon, I think. Well, having listened now to a number of respondents in these interviews, what you just concluded, I think is consistent with the conclusions of many others or the experience, that the physical separation has led to a different kind of connection and the one that likely to be enduring beyond the end of this pandemic. I hope it is. I hope it is. I do think it makes us realize really who in our sphere, who in our tribe that we're closer to, you know? Who is really important to us. But the third question is really what is beyond the pandemic? And I wanna frame it this way, based on a presumption, and I could be wrong on this, the presumption is that whatever is on the other side of this pandemic, life will be different than it was before. In what ways I don't know and no one, I'm certain knows. But in this moment, when we're in the middle of it, we can either try to run away from the things that we're most concerned about, the worst fears, or we can focus on the things we'd like to see, our best hopes. So my question for you is framed not as a best hope, but as a preferred future. Assuming the future's gonna be a little bit different, what's your preferred future that you'd like to see and help create on the other side of this? I think what we need to do when we get kind of on the other side of this is to look at how we handled it because this might be our first pandemic, but it's probably not going to be our last. So what are those lessons that we take from what just happened, right? We can see that we need to strengthen our ability or our ability to respond to medical emergencies with masks and gloves and things like that. I don't think anybody ever thought we'd all be wearing masks and yet here we are. So we need to look at some of those things. Our food, where is our food chain and how can we strengthen our food chain? I think we still need to look at that. And we need to look at, and I don't mean to be myopic, but Longmont, because that's my hometown, that's the place I love. What can we do to strengthen Longmont's ability to take care of its people? We do a pretty good job when times are great, when the economy's booming, we're all about spending money for affordable housing for people and things for the homeless. But what about when everybody becomes unemployed? That could happen again too. What do we do about that and how do we address that? Those are the things that you need to look at as a leader and say, okay, if something like this happens again, how can we better be prepared, be prepared for that? I think we do a pretty good job of that, but I think the country and the state and our city need to look within and look for those resources that we have outsourced that maybe we need to bring back in, you know? Yeah, I do know. And I think we hear echoes of what we just heard from you reverberating across the country and internationally, makes me certain if it's not a recapture that we establish the ability to do what we need to do in the interest of not just long monitors, but everybody. So Bonnie Finley, thank you again for all you've done for this community. Thank you for your contribution to this project. Stay safe and healthy. Take care of yourself and your family. You too. Thank you. Carol Pransky, thank you so much for your willingness to contribute to this Longmont Voices and Vision Project. Each of these interviews we started by learning about the interviewees, so tell us about Carol Pransky. My name is Carol Pransky and I've lived in Longmont for six years and I'm from Chicago originally. I'm amazed how many people I meet from Chicago in this area. I am an office manager for Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. And I spend a lot of my time doing creative works like writing poetry, writing plays, taking walks, trying to figure out which mask I'm going to wear next, eating some dark chocolate-covered snacks. And I do a lot of spiritual practices, meditation and quiet time. And I've even reverted back to an old childhood practice of saying the rosary to guide prayers for our community and for our world and for my immediate beloved people. So I'm enjoying working from home. I'm enjoying the sunshine and the sound of birds. And I'd say the hardest, oh, that was just about myself, that I do have two boys that are young men now. And it's just a mixed world right now. One moment to the next, keeping myself going. It is indeed. And I think you started to answer by first question, actually. And that is in this, in a moment in history, that none of us have ever experienced. No one on the planet's experienced what we are all experiencing here. There's no game plan. There's no set of directions for us getting through. So in this time of all the unknowns with which we're dealing, how are you getting yourself through this period? I think the hardest time of day is actually first in the morning when I wake up. And I'm aware of how much uncertainty is in the day. And it's just getting myself out of bed for a few moments, you know, to get that going, get revved up, get the energy up and bring a hopefulness to myself that will get me out of bed. I am getting myself mostly up because I am blessed to still have a job. I am busy with that job. So staying busy helps, but some of the other things I'm doing beyond work is turning to the arts. There's a lot of poetry out there that can help us be more resilient and feel less alone. I have turned to more creative works that I've wanted to do for a while, writing plays and poetry, collaborating on a few pieces. I find that very fun and fulfilling and just sort of that general sense of not feeling alone. I am talking to my sisters in the Chicago area more often. I'm not actually doing as much cooking. I'm doing some cooking but I was doing more creative cooking before. Now it's sort of like more utilitarian so that I can turn to those things within myself, meditation and being creative. I'm in collaboration with other people or not. So I highly recommend that. I am also walking quite a bit, doing some Kundalini yoga. Most things have moved online and I have found that a lot of my practices have moved online. So I'm able to utilize those as resources. Also I work for a Unitarian Universalist Church which is very active in uplifting the community. And as an employee, I benefit from hearing their thoughts, their comments, their community service to each other and our kind words to each other. So and I'm also howling every, well not every, but many nights. I howl at eight o'clock and my neighbor across the alley, I stand on my deck and my neighbor across the alley has two husties and they start, well, not quite howling. It's kind of somewhere between barking and howling. And they don't even have to shift their position. They just run out with this loud noise and my sons will come up and say, oh my gosh, there are the dogs. And my neighbor laughs and we howl for a while and after a few moments I go back in. And so it's just odd little things like that, quirky kind of fun things. These moments of energy and humor that even in these difficult times. So in these times with the physical separation, social distancing, the isolation that we're experiencing, how are you keeping yourself connected to friends and family? One thing I'm finding is that I would describe myself as an introvert which means that I gain energy from having time alone. To some degree that's helpful because I like to meditate. I like to have some time to be quiet. And then when I return to family or if I return to a Zoom meeting for work or something, I find that I have a lot of energy and a lot of hope or a lot of positive spirit to share with them because I've taken time for myself. As far as staying with family and friends, I am finding that just the regular old phone call is working. I'm using Zoom a lot for work. It's wonderful to see people's faces. But when it comes to more of the personal side, I'd say it's the phone calls. I started to write postcards. I write postcards to my family. I've created a couple of little poems. I put the poem on the postcard, I send that off. I plan to do more of that and eventually possibly contact just more people in my family like my nephews and nieces are in the next round, so to speak. And I've been reaching out that way. A couple of old friends on Facebook, though I'm not on Facebook very much. So I guess phone calls, postcards, thinking about people, praying for them, talking with them. Not so much walking with people as much as just, yeah, the phone I'd say primarily in some Zoom. All right, my third question. What you just described as part of what is the normal for us right now. The third question is based on the presumption that whatever was normal before now, the world's going to look different on the other side of this pandemic. So assuming there's going to be a new normal and maybe it won't be exactly what we're experiencing now, whatever that new normal is, what's your preferred future? What would you like to see? And maybe more importantly, what are you willing to help create? I love that question. Thank you for asking it. And I do agree. Not a return to what we knew, but a creation of a new normal or an experience of a new normal. I have, I think a short story that I'd like to share with you that will help me help explain what I look towards seeing. And you may have even heard the story before. I'm not sure. There was a tsunami that hit Japan. And it devastated some different towns and researchers went into Japan to find out what they could to help out, whatever, do their own research. They went into a town where the water had seeped into the yards and the house, but it only went maybe a foot high in most places, or maybe it only reached the yard. The people were devastated, devastated. Oh my gosh, they felt like their world had ended. The researchers went into a different town where the tsunami water had reached six to eight feet inside the homes, the majority of homes, and the people were not devastated. They came out saying, we're going to be okay. We're going to make it. We're just going to make it work, whatever we have to do. And the researchers were so puzzled, like what could they do? How could this have happened? So they went back to the first town that had reached, you know, had lower water and they did more research and they asked for the stories. And they heard stories like, well, when we heard the tsunami warning, we packed up the kids, we packed up our computers, you know, we packed up our necessities in our car and we drove out. And then they went back to the town, which had been, most people would agree more devastated with the amount of water that came through and they said, what are your stories? And the stories they heard when something like this, a young man went and knocked on the doorbell, but knocked on the door of a woman named Mrs. Tanaka. Mrs. Tanaka, Mrs. Tanaka, come the tsunami warning has gone off and Mrs. Tanaka comes to the door and she says, I don't have a car. I can't, I don't know what to do. And the young man says, I don't have a car. I don't have a bike, but Mrs. Tanaka, I will carry you on my back out of this town. And Mrs. Tanaka leaves her home and the young man and the, and this older woman help each other as neighbors to get out of town. And then when they can return to the town that's been so devastated, they have each other. So, you know, to help as neighbors. So I look at that story. I heard this a long time ago after we experienced the floods in 2013. True story filled by researchers who came to talk about how to overcome devastation. And I feel that at this time, tsunami might be an appropriate term to describe what we are experiencing. Certainly it's not water for us in this area, but certainly there's a tsunami of fear or uncertainty, perhaps a fear of lack of government services and so on, whatever you want to look at, fear of perhaps losing a job of not having food, that kind of thing. But I remember this story, which is not made up, not my story really, but I remember this story and I think of it as neighbors helping neighbors. And if you have nobody else around you in this disjointed society, we all have physical neighbors nearby. And I would like to see neighbors helping each other. And really by virtue of knowing that you have somebody who will be there for you, even if it's not in a major way, it doesn't have to be major, it can be smaller, it can help us all through this time of such uncertainty that we know somebody's there who cares. And also as part of that, it's not just our neighbors, but it is our local government and it's having connections in different levels. So it's having connections among our neighbors and it's having connections where our government does have resources, but they know who to contact at the state level and so on. So I'm not saying it's just neighbors. There's sort of a strong web, kind of a, I don't know if I'd call it a safety web, but maybe a network, some kind of web that helps us. And there's this image that I shared with a neighbor friend of mine that comes back. It's that ending to the animated version of the Grinch, how the Grinch stole Christmas, right? All their Christmas things are gone. And what do the neighbors do? They come out of their homes, they gather in a circle, maybe physical distancing is done and they can hold hands. And they sing a song. And they're like, hey, we're actually doing okay. And I love that animated show and I love that moment. And Longmont has, I don't know how many parks, 50 parks or 50 green areas or 56 green spaces. I have this vision that someday neighbors will be able to come out of their homes. Maybe they will still physically distance, maybe not. And they'll look around and they'll see friendly faces. And they'll have people that they know are there with them. We're walking this path together. And that includes marginalized people, elders, young people, people in wheelchairs. I don't know. I don't know how to include the people who can't come out of their homes, but maybe we figure that out too somewhere along the line. So that's neighbors helping neighbors. That's a pretty attractive preferred new normal. And I'm going to share that image. I'm going to hold that image of us all coming out into our green areas. And others are going to hear that. And maybe this interview starts the momentum toward that at least event or series of events on the far side of the pandemic. Carol Pransky, thank you again for your contribution to this project. And thank you for all the other contributions you're making to our community, to your neighborhood and the others. Take care of yourself, stay safe. And when we're able to venture back out. And we're able to meet in person, face to face, our paths will cross again at NGLA, I'm sure. Thank you, Tim, for everything you're doing. Thank you for this time. Take care now. All right. Stay well. Stay well. Bye bye. Bye bye.