A little late with my hello this week! A long story for another time…
First, I want to give a shout-out to one of my favorite readers ,who turns 80 today and is so impressed that I’m writing on Substack, just like Heather Cox Richardson! Happy Birthday, you know who you are!
Next…next weekend I am hosting an Earth Day event that's part write-in and part poetry reading. The second part will be exceptionally moving, and the first part will be something like this, this writing I’m doing that you’re now reading. We’re working with Earthday.org, whose theme this year is Planet vs. Plastics. Some of us started a writers action group a few years ago (anyone can join) where we get together and howl at the moonshot of an idea that we can maybe save our planet, save ourselves in ten years— EXCEPT IT’S FIVE YEARS NOW.
We can’t move fast enough to end fossil fuels and reverse the gush of greenhouse gasses into the bubble. So here’s the connection: Plastic is made from fossil fuels.
And now I will write something about plastic, ahem:
When one has lived many decades on the planet having first-world experiences, one witnesses many trends, some of them good and some of them disastrous. This person who I’m honoring today was born the year Saran Wrap was invented. He lived on the timeline that took the world from bakelite bangles and vinyl records to tupperware, lucite furniture, and thermoplastic roadsters. Plus a hundred little conveniences that are killing us. Aside from plastic coffee waste and water bottles (somehow we survived 6 million years of evolution without them), here are some of my biggest plastic peeves.
Plastic sleeves.
I just love the $1 cards at Trader Joe's. But maybe they should make one that says, “Sorry to hear you're drowning in plastic!”
Ballpoint Pens.
I don’t know if I’m remembering correctly that you could replace the ink barrel in the durable plastic sleeve of a plastic pen. Now the whole thing is a throw-away.
Disposable razors.
They used to be for "guests" or "emergency" or "travel." But before Harry’s created non-disposable plastic razors they were all you could buy. Still. Grownups don’t actually need plastic in razors at all.
Flossers.
Wow. Okay I’ve used them. I raised a kid. And I just couldn’t throw them away each time, just couldn’t, because plastic is forever. I know that seems gross, but for thousands of years people have used Miswak twigs over and over, so it’s not.
Jelly Jars.
It’s almost impossible to find grape jelly now, which is weird. And it’s exceptionally rare to find it in a glass jar. Same with peanut butter. Why all the plastic jars when glass is potentially carbon-free?
What’s your plastic peeve?
I may turn this rant into a poem for next Sunday’s event. Say you’re coming to Poets on Earth, in person, or from wherever you are!
I was busy writing with the aid of this slab of plastic, subdivided into easy letter-sized chunks, and then telling the machine which has a great many plastic bits within and without to Post this comment by fondling the plastic appendage and clicking its little plastic button. Before that I used up my own reef of "disposable Bic Stick" pens. Nothing is free.