I often elude to mystery when I'm waxing philosophic. I'm a firm supporter of all that is mysterious, because, frankly I don't need an explanation. For anything. I'm delighted for stuff to be beyond my grasp.
Well, most of the time.
I can let the Universe be mysterious. I can let the human animal be mysterious. I can let the workings of my own inner worlds be mysterious.
But what I can't stand/understand?
What is up with trash? For real, I don't know if I’m just waking up to reality, or if I've been concerned with trash for a while, but I find this disturbing. The rate I which I produce garbage is way higher than my lifestyle. Where is all this shit coming from and how do I turn off the tap?!
Ever see the movie "Idiocracy"? At the very beginning, there are giant trucks scaling even more gigantic mountains of rubbish, where they will deposit yet another five tons into the pile. In fact, the scene makes a point, even with really amateurish props and set: If we don't do something about the trash, we'll extinguish ourselves long before the full brunt of climate change ruins our picnic.
And if you're in the mood for a documentary, you can't beat Jeremy Irons in "Trashed". It's a great film, but it's impossible to watch and not feel culpable, feel a need for a shower, ya know, a dirty feeling. You watch this one and you'll be caught up real fast on the scope of the problem.
From a personal perspective, I'm filling a full bag of kitchen tall, we're talking thirteen gallons, with household refuse every other day. That's too much. I mean that literally and figuratively. I mean, too much as it's disturbing there is so much waste from packaging (somebody's got to start paying attention to that), and too much from a psychological perspective, in that it extends the sense of doom beyond everything thrown at us by coronavirus.
Plus, I have to wonder, I feel compelled to explain, I cannot abide the mystery of the origin of so much offal. Other than the packaging, what the phuck is in there?
I'm not that interested. I mean, I'm not going through my trash in an effort to get accurate data. Evidence, as they say. And with the frequency with which it is happening, I'm thinking this is just a fact of life. Recycling programs all across the world are folding, like a lawn chair. It just doesn't pay to reduce, recycle or reuse…
And, up to now, consumers haven't been willing to take trash personally, they don't favor the items that deliver with the minimal packaging, so the cycle continues. And expands. Just like the Universe itself.
But.
Things are gonna be different now. For many people. Those that survive will still have to live with a certain number of naysayers. Trumpists. They can be dangerous, but, amongst a setting of level headed, calm, post-pandemic population, they will be mostly a nuisance. There are other challenges, other layers of catastrophe coming in which most Trumpist's will be culled from the herd, one way or another.
Yeah, now that we see how the pandemic took a big bite out of civilization, and how ignoring the science gets everybody killed, we can make the right decisions about how to deal with waste at every scale. Maybe we can take trash as an important subset of the drivers that precipitate climate disaster. And take climate change seriously enough that we don't extinguish the rest of the human race because we ran out of real estate. Oh, and atmosphere. And food, with all the oceans dying. And the list goes on and on.
Be healthy, and I mean a great big healthy, not just your personal biome, but everyone in the collective consciousness. We all make the appropriate decisions and we may just come out of this alive…