Michael Adamson, Oakland
- See a piece of plastic on the sidewalk, reach down to pick it up.
- Stop yourself. You don’t know whose waste this is; it might be contaminated with the virus.
- Realize that’s not really how community transmission works. Go to the store to buy some gloves anyway, since you can’t be too safe.
- Remind yourself that millions of disposable gloves end up in landfills each year and take ages to break down.
- Head home to grab your pair of reusable rubber kitchen gloves.
- Start huffing and puffing on your way up the hill leading home.
- React in horror to the smell of your own breath saturating your face covering.
- Throw your face covering into the laundry machine.
- Add the rest of your dirty laundry, since you know that doing full loads saves on water.
- Brush your teeth.
- Hang-dry your clothes to skip the dryer cycle and save on energy.
- Return to the sidewalk, now sporting your rubber gloves and clean, still-damp face covering.
- Discover that the offending piece of plastic has blown away.
- Hunt for more, since you’ve gone through all this effort.
