In my research on gathering, I have found that so many of us are going through the motions when we get together despite all the aspirations these events carry to change us and the world.

Which is why we should embrace this season of remote work, Zoom meetings, live-streamed book clubs and Skype birthday parties. It is, amid the grimness, an opportunity to experiment. We won’t be able to fuss over the things I believe we have been wrongly fussing about for too long. We can’t worry about the fish knives. Or the stage lighting. Or the theme colors. Instead, we will have to focus on what we should have been focusing on long before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic: creating magic among people.

The practical questions organizers are facing (Do we postpone? Migrate online? Cancel altogether?) quickly transmute into a set of spiritual questions (Why are we doing this in the first place? Is it really needed? Who is this for? And who gets to decide?). This invites a set of questions that every gathering needs answered: What do we need in this moment and how might we gather around that?