Shutter to Think: Community is the cure to our pandemic exhaustion

Jake Wallin, left, gamemaster for the Dixon's CER Live Action Role Playing group sets up a scenario for his players during their gathering at Lowell Park on Sept. 23. Wallin founded the LARPing group 10 years ago, setting up a chapter here in Dixon and one in Roanoke, Virginia. “Imagination can bring people together and can be healing,” said Wallin. He can attest to it: He met his wife thorugh gaming. — Jake Wallin, left, gamemaster for the Dixon's CER Live Action Role Playing group sets up a scenario for his players during their gathering at Lowell Park on Sept. 23. Wallin founded the LARPing group 10 years ago, setting up a chapter here in Dixon and one in Roanoke, Virginia. “Imagination can bring people together and can be healing,” said Wallin. He can attest to it: He met his wife through gaming. (Alex T. Paschal - apaschal@shawmedia.com)

This past week I wrote about two very different groups of people.

The first was a group of neighbors in a quiet cul-de-sac in Dixon who would meet twice monthly with lawn chairs and Tupperware to share food, drinks and updates on sports, grandchildren and local tidbits about town.

The other group would meet at Lowell Park. Arriving with armored gauntlets, amulets of casting and war hammers, this assembly, too, would chat a bit about work, lives and the like before disembarking into a fantastic world of demi-fiends and spells.

They were two very different groups coming together for a variety of reasons but, ultimately, to be involved in a community where you can make connections, protect one another and share in the warmth of friendship.

We all have pandemic exhaustion. I silently vowed to myself I wouldn’t use COVID-19 in this column – hear me out – but that’s what made those dark times so merciless. It was robbing from us the simple social creative comforts of sharing a beer with your neighbor or casting a spell of stun to protect your teammates.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if you’re wielding a foam-rubber vorpal sword or a nylon-webbed lawn chair. It’s just about togetherness.

– Alex T. Paschal, follow me on Instagram @svmphotogs or message me at apaschal@shawmedia.com.