fallow period

I watched an hour-long interview with Katie Mitchell, OBE, and Ben Whishaw about the future of live theater during COVID-19.

(Side note: I may be becoming the biggest Ben Whishaw fan there is. I may or may not be writing this while his signed photo is to my left.)

(Second side note: It looks like this.)

At any rate…

They’re both asked about how they’ve been coping with COVID. Ben’s answer is about 35 minutes in, and in the sweetest way possible he says he hasn’t been feeling like doing anything. He calls it a “fallow period.”

Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmqjN_tf8g0

The host and Katie latch onto that and later discuss it as far as environmentalism (needing to take care of the land) and as a metaphor. (Around 39 minutes.)

The concept grabbed hold of me, and I can’t let it go.

A fallow period. COVID has granted me a fallow period.

Because I’m me and I like to see the real definitions of words, I looked it up. Besides the agricultural definition—not planting fields—there’s this one from Cambridge dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fallow :

“A fallow period of time is one in which very little happens:

After a long fallow period, the author has brought out a new book.”

Well, shit. There it is.

Authors have fallow periods.

Ben Whishaw gave me a therapy session in one word.

Thank you, toots.

(Another side note: more reasons why I like him besides his acting ability—he’s the patron saint of introverts, apparently a fan of, per internet gossip, cats, books, and the scent of oud. He may very well be my spirit animal.) 

I think I like the term fallow because it legitimatizes doing nothing. It follows up my post last Saturday about taking a break. That not having my foot on the gas pedal at all times can be not only inevitable, but ideal. Necessary. Undeniably required.

Has COVID been a fallow period for you at times? Or as we are entering fall in the northern hemisphere, are you going into a fallow period?

If you haven’t thought of taking a break in that way, I encourage you to do so. Just that one word has made me feel better. I hope it makes you feel good, too.