South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Hollywood author reflects on year of COVID-19 in ‘Viewpoints on 2020’
As a maven of mystery theater, Barbara Fox is familiar with solving problems of the unknown.
The year of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, has thrown her for a loop.
Normally, Fox has a busy schedule, both professionally and socially. She is a producer and director with her interactive murder mystery plays Mystery on the Menu. She also loves traveling and dancing. But all of that came to a halt last March.
“I normally travel and do my shows several times a month,” Fox said. “Plus, I’m a line dancer. I used to do a lot of different things and all of a sudden there’s nothing.
“I got out my calendar from last year and noticed that January and February were full of things to do, but the rest of the year was blank,” she said. “Blank spaces, except for maybe a doctor’s appointment every now and then, that’s it. It’s crazy. Aside from swimming and going to the grocery store, there’s nowhere else to go.”
Bookings for her shows came to a halt. And Fox decided that the risk of the coronavirus was too great to accept the few that have come in. One of her saving graces is writing. She has published several mystery novels to complement her show.
“I’ve always done a lot of writing, so I began writing about how life was during the pandemic, including the things that we’re missing and the things that have changed,” she said. “I even wrote a couple of plays about the subject, which have been performed virtually by local theater companies.”
Fox said she thought about the possibility that a book might be a good way of reaching out to people to make some kind of difference.
“I put a notice on my Facebook page saying that I was looking for articles and plays about how people have been coping and dealing with the pandemic,” she said. “I asked them to send me anything that they have.
“People began sending me poems, plays and articles. I selected 12 of them and put them into a book, along with my writing.
That turned into ‘Viewpoints on 2020.’ ”
Pandemic wisdom
Fox said she loves the contributions she received through her post, making it clear that people have drawn different lessons and wisdom from 2020.
“It was interesting because everybody had different viewpoints,” she said. “Some people coped with it by exercising, some by meditating. Everybody had different suggestions and ideas.”
The writings ranged from work life during the pandemic to attempts at dating.
“I really didn’t know what to expect from the contributions,” she said. “I just left it open for people. I think a lot of the plays were particularly interesting because one of them dealt with officing by Zoom, which is totally new.”
“I even wrote about a dating service on Zoom,” she said. “Clearly, Zoom has become a very important part of everybody’s life.”
Some of what Fox read in the writings she acquired for the book tell her that people have found some profound learning from the year.
“I think people have learned to be more resourceful and more dependent upon themselves because you have to find your own thing to do,” she said. “And that’s in my book. People have found their own inner resources.”
She also noted that a little humor goes a long way.
“People sent a lot of snippets of humor,” she said. “They sent jokes like, ‘If
I’d known that in March would be the last time I go to a restaurant, I would have ordered dessert.’ I put two or three of those kinds of quotes between each part of the book so people can laugh at themselves or laugh at the things that are happening.”
Fox even wrote a future forecasting article in the book called “Fast Forward 2040.”
“In one of my articles, a grandmother, talking to her grandchild in the year 2040, tells her what life was like before the pandemic,” she said. “The grandmother tells her that they used to hug each other a lot. Then the little girl asks, ‘What’s a hug?’ ”
Fox’s main hope, she said, is one of empathy and connection.
“I hope that this book might help people, showing how other people are going through the same thing that you’re going through.”
Excerpts from ‘Viewpoints on 2020’
■ Barbara Fox: “We weren’t scared until the pandemic back in 2020, but we’re safe now. We wear masks and sit in cubicles and stay far away from each other. We’re safe, we’re perfectly safe.”
■ Gregory McDaniel: “The coronavirus has put me and millions of others under house arrest. It has also warped time.”
■ Sharon Baker: “A lighthearted list of tips for anyone restless and bored with optimists. Hang out with Mother Nature.”
■ Ben Perri: Offered advice on meditating and practicing loving-kindness.
■ Pamela Salem: “A good thing happened during the COVID lockdown. The birth of six beautiful ‘iguanalets.’ ”
■ Luis Roberto Herrera: His poem “Keep Running” says, “Adapt, look at life…as another moment in living.”
■ Barry Katz: “Take your meds daily, get a lot of rest. Drink a lot of fluids; I like vodka best.”
■ Stephen Olson: His play “Zoom Out” features an office meeting in whic a coworker says “Glenda, you haven’t turned on your video! Turn on your mike! You can’t seem to grasp the technology.”
“Viewpoints on 2020” is available both in print and as an ebook on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Fox said she is going to donate most of the profits to a food bank in Hollywood.