Staying Creative While Waiting on the World to Change

April 9, 2020 Off By Michael

Broccoli, corn, and collard greens growing in my garden on the deck. ©2020 Harold Michael Harvey

I believe the sheltering in place edict has made me a more productive, if not a more creative, writer. Maynard Eaton, a fellow journalist, remarked to me the other day that I have been very productive and innovative in the past few weeks. It dawns on me that he is right. I have cranked out an article a day for the past sixteen days.

When I started on this roll, I kept a daily diary on the pandemic, and then it hit me that the more one beats the drum about something, wanted or unwanted, the more it magnifies in its reality. I stopped the daily diary and searched for more creative ways to explain the times we live. For instance, I wrote a piece about celebrating the homegoing of a civil rights warrior — Rev. Joseph E. Lowery — in a pandemic.

A row of bell peppers, broccoli, and corn growing on the deck. ©2020 Harold Michael Harvey

The only reference to the pandemic was in the title. The article focused on my relationship with Lowery from my days as a 27-year- old journalist to a 45-year-old lawyer helping to protect the rights of college students facing disorderly conduct charges during a spring break festival in the mid-1990s. I shared the lessons I learned first-hand from the dean of the civil rights movement.

Writing this article helped me to ease a bit of the grief I felt over his transition. There is an inevitable pain in not saying goodbye in a communal setting to a person who untiringly advocated for the rights of all Americans to share in the American dream.

A row of collard greens growing on the deck. ©2020 Harold Michael Harvey

This time has also caused me to be more reflective. I wrote a story in 1977 about two elderly ladies. They were working to revitalize their community. The ladies decided one day that “We all need to get out and plant a garden.” It was my first paid piece. It found a home in Facing South Magazine. Remembering how those ladies used a garden to give new life to their community stirred the latent gardener in me.

In March, I got out and planted a garden in flowerpots on my deck. I have herbs, corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, snow peas, collards, eggplant, and broccoli. In a few weeks, produce from this deck garden should come online. Then I will use my time to be more creative in the kitchen finding ways to prepare delicious meals from the plants growing right outside my back door.

CategoryArticle
TagsGarden Writing Writing Life

About The Author

Harold Michael Harvey is a Past President of The Gate City Bar Association and is the recipient of the Association’s R. E. Thomas Civil Rights Award. He is the author of Paper Puzzle and Justice in the Round: Essays on the American Jury System, and a two-time winner of Allvoices’ Political Pundit Prize. His work has appeared in Facing South, The Atlanta Business Journal, The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Magazine, Southern Changes Magazine, Black Colleges Nines, and Medium.