Goats, games, shows — We all reserve some respite

In the one-act play, “In Her Golden Years,” an adult daughter discovers a piece of her mother’s past that quietly opens their relationship. The portrayals of mother and daughter, by Elayne Gordon and Dainelle Testori-Gartner, are graceful and sweet.

Connecticut theatrical organizations closed their doors during the pandemic, but many, like the Town Players of New Canaan, decided the world shouldn’t go entirely without theater. And so, until April 23, $20 gets you a ticket to theater you can attend from the comfort of your couch. You get soulful portrayals and there’s no need to dress up, no parking spots to find, no sitting next to someone who doesn't know to unwrap the candy prior to the start of the play.

In fact, like mushrooms in the dark, an entire world grew online via Zoom (and various other streaming platforms) that allowed people with decent internet connections who were stuck in their homes to travel through their screens to a talk about Clara Barton: Angel of the Battlefield (Seymour Historical Society), to an online quilting class (Guilford Art Center), or to a talk about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (Cheshire Public Library).

And that’s just the Connecticut-based events. Online thrill-seekers could sign on and take a cooking class based in Mexico City, or, through an organization such as Amazon Explore, visit a Munich beer garden or watch monkeys in Costa Rica for a fraction of the cost of actual travel.

We have adapted, and though we spent the last year mostly avoiding other people, we found a way to engage online, if we weren’t Zoomed out from work. The same way the pandemic has urged us closer toward a cashless society (hellooooo, online shopping) and telemedicine, our online lives beg the question: What will remain when we emerge on the other side? People in New York City already worry that all those downtown office buildings will remain empty while people continue to work remotely. Will we have more bike lanes? Longer lines for the reduced

Contributed photo A Goat Stroll — which is precisely what it sounds like — at a place like Bradley Mountain Farm in Southington.