PITCHER OR FIELDER?

May 9, 2020, Saturday.

The coronavirus has stimulated a lot of creative activity these days. I notice it especially among people in the art world: visual artists, musicians, dancers, actors. They're working within severe restrictions to fashion new ways of communicating and entertaining. School teachers who are now teaching on-line have come up with new methods for presenting the material they're required to teach. Work-at-home parents are creating strategies to deal with stay-at-home children. Some merchandizers are inventing new approaches to promote and sell their products. These people are the pitchers, the ones who are originating new processes, new methods, new ideas.

The fielders are people who respond to what comes at them. They follow the directions of a boss or parent or leader. Our heroic health-care workers and first responders have improvised in a multitude of ways to combat a disease that is not understood, at the same time functioning with a shortage of equipment and a surge of patients. Fielders get the job done, but they're not as good at dealing with uncertainty.  Under the present circumstances when firm direction is often absent, some fielders are becoming confused and unable to self-motivate. They find ways to kill time by immersing themselves into ready-made amusements. It’s easier to go along with the crowd instead of going it alone. I worry that children who have been raised by helecopter parents are in this category. Their lives have been arranged for them, and their activities have been constantly monitored and corrected. They don't know how to come up with their own ideas and solutions.

We need both pitchers and fielders in this life. But right now, the pitchers are sprouting all kinds of creative ideas in all kinds of places, while some of the fielders are wilting from lack of direction.