Let's talk about the environmental impact of COVID-19. The masks. The paper masks. They need to go. I am so disgusted by the amount of paper masks being strewn about on the sidewalks, on local hiking trails, and in waterways. The flimsy film is not biodegradable and the straps are choking our sea creatures. Something needs to change or we're never going to recover from this pandemic. I saw this mask on the floor when I was taking a walk back from the dining hall. I was so upset. I couldn't even pick it up because I ran out of hand sanitizer. I'm going to invest in a trash picker at this point. I'm sick of it. I don't care if people call me gross or make fun of me for picking up litter. This is our planet, people; and we need to take better care of it. The rubber gloves. First of all, as of right now, wearing gloves has been deemed ineffective for fitting off COVID-19. We need to ditch the rubber and just start washing our hands! On top of that, we need to stop discarding of rubber gloves. Here's a suggestion: if you're so concerned about wearing gloves, why not invest in reusable cloth ones? Although they are ineffective as of today, at least cloth ones won't pile up in a landfill (the same thing goes for masks). I am outraged at the human race right now. Not only are we selfish, but we are sloppy, too. We must do better. I may go around campus this weekend and pick up garbage. I am so shaken by this behavior. I'm sure our planet is shaken, too.
August 22, 2020
This image, drawn by a four-year-old, says it all."I am angry!" next to a scowling face with gritted teeth. I don't know whether she drew it because she was feeling angry, or if she was just practicing drawing faces because they're learning about feelings at school. So I ask her how she's feeling. She tells me. It's elaborate, rambling, complex, and funny. She's honest, unselfconscious in a way that adults never are. She speaks in clauses and interrupts herself. She is love and joy and all good things distilled, sitting in the patch of sun on the scuffed living room floor of the new, smaller house we just moved into. She is surrounded by cardboard boxes and the dust of the house's previous occupants (why wouldn't you clean a house before you sold it to another family during a pandemic?! "I am angry!"). She is learning about feelings. She is teaching me.
March 10, 2021