Kim Gallagher
freelance writer and creative director
What, if anything, are you doing differently?
I am avoiding using the words “uncertain times,” “tone deaf,” and “pivot” as well as any maudlin piano music. I am sharing the WiFi with my husband and college and high school children. We divvy up “quiet zones,” comment on each other’s Zoom calls and get inordinately excited when “Jeopardy” comes on.
Are you staying creatively active?
For the first six weeks of the pandemic, I worked from 6 a.m. to midnight helping clients ranging from an international humanitarian relief agency to a national lending institution and a few in between. Every single one of them was trying to do the right thing by their employees and customers — and for the greater good. The adrenaline was rushing, but I was burning out. So I made myself not work a little each day. I gardened. Wrote an article for Medium. Scribbled limericks for friends’ birthdays. Baked “friendship bread” using the starter dough that our neighbors passed around.
How are you sparking yourself creatively?
Besides occasionally watching documentaries about tigers and basketball in the middle of the day? I’m working with a slew of rising high school seniors on their college essays. As colleges announce openings, I feel like it’s a signal that life will go on — not as before, but differently and, in some respects, better. We humans are survivors.
Failing is good for sparking creativity. I was a guest on We Should Talk About That, a favorite podcast of mine, to talk about the University of Corona. After 20 million years of producing radio and sometimes jumping in the booth to do a voiceover, I FROZE during the recording session. Stammered at softball questions. Lost my train of thought. Talked over the hosts. Thank God for editors.
