To save ourselves ...

To get right to the point, as those of you who know me, know I love to do, I want to talk to you today about disposable masks and hand sanitizers.

These items are in our world right now in, and here it is again, unprecedented (I imagine you have been hearing this word a lot lately) amounts. The plastic pollution was already an enormous problem before Covid-19. The world was on a path to ban single use plastics, plastic water bottles and the such. Many of you were outspoken advocates for this and it was and is necessary.

What I am not hearing now, is any conversation about the enormous amount of plastic waste, that disposable face masks, plastic hand sanitizer bottles and the like, will add to an environment already burdened by so much human generated pollution. The masks have an environmental lifespan of 450 years, as do the plastic bottles.

United Nations Trade And Development projects that disposable face masks are set to go from $800 MILLION in 2019 to $166 BILLION in 2020 and even higher after that. Please, let that sink in. 

Image - 'The Guardian'

How can we talk about protecting our elders and most vulnerable in society from Covid-19 and not talk about environmental responsibility in ensuring that there will be a healthy planet for us to live in after Covid-19. It is myopic, at best, to worry about the current pandemic and associated behaviours if the environmental responsibility of keeping surgical masks, plastic gloves, plastic hand sanitizer bottles, medical PPE's and sanitizing chemicals out of our land, rivers, lakes and oceans is neglected. 

Where are the people asking questions like 'Is there anyone monitoring the sanitization product levels in our drinking water?' 'In our lakes?' The amount of sanitizer going into our water systems when we wash our hands, clean etc is .. yes, you guessed it, unprecedented. And incredibly toxic. Is anyone testing hospital effluents with this extraordinary increase in sanitization? Is anyone looking at the effects of constant sanitizer use on the skin of very young children and even babies? Is there a similarity with all this sanitization and the overuse of antibiotics? Will it create 'superbugs'?

Since staying home, products being delivered at home are at a historical high (I didn't want to use unprecedented again ...) between online shopping and takeout services, the accumulating plastic waste is enormous ...

We cannot separate ourselves from responsibility of the whole. It is a web, of which we are one part. We must not and cannot take a myopic view when it comes to life and we must address and find solutions for the rapidly accumulating Covid-19 waste in the same way we became advocates for the banning of other plastics and chemicals. We must rapidly make disposable masks that are biodegradable or truly recyclable or something else. I don't know what. I don't have the answer but I know collectively, we do, and we must start looking for it. Fast. We can perhaps fill those hand sanitizer bottles with environmentally sound liquid soap and carry another one of water, so we can wash our hands anywhere, which is the best thing anyway. Or something else. Something other that billions of people dumping sanitizer into our waterways ...

We must ask the questions, investigate and come up with solutions.

To save ourselves. Not the environment, not the planet. The planet will be fine. We must save ourselves. 

I lift up my face ...

This misty moment.

Filled with bird chirpings. Great bird noises. Busy bird noises. Bickering bird noises. Everyone going about their bird business of the day, gathering bugs, worms and other things of bird life.

The bright green, dark green, in between green ... trees standing perfectly still. Being. Witnessing.

The noise, the silence, simultaneously.

The countless tiny droplets of mist coats all souls. Filling every available surface with gentle life.
I lift up my face.

The magic in our hands ...

These are my hands. Well, hand ...

I am wearing the gloves because my skin is cracked and bleeding from all the hand washing and dishwashing. My knuckle bled, there is a little paper cut like opening on my pinkie and red dry skin over much of my hands. They sting and hurt when I don't have the gloves on for washing, so, I have been wearing them almost all day today.

The day wound down, as they do, and we put our little ones to bed. I had my gloves on for story time, for countless requests for this and that, for medicine giving and tea bringing and finally, I had my gloves on for snuggling.

As I lay my hand to caress hair and then gently rest on the blanket that covered my little one, I was struck by a remembering of the magic of our skin. The magic in our hands. This thin layer of nitrile, reminded me that every time we touch, when our skin comes into contact with something, especially our loved ones, something incredible happens. A communication you have to be very present for to feel, or have the choice removed from you to miss.

It is an extraordinary thing, all the experiences we take for granted.

I imagined myself not being to remove the gloves, not being able to have my hands, my skin, feel again. It is then that the remembering came. I sit here now and type and periodically stop and look at my hands. Place them together and feel this magic. Then I type again, feel my fingertips on the keyboard and imagine if I could not feel them with my skin. I am so glad I can.

There are so many blessings among the fear. Countless. This is one I wanted to share with you tonight.


Friday, March 20th, 2020 - Quarantine day 7