Friday Links: 10 June, 2022

Good morning! It’s Friday once again and we’re expecting some thunderstorms today. Extra water for the garden, right?

We’re still healthy (I’m mildly headachey, but that’s just a variation of normal for me at this point). Hopefully our PCR test results will come in sometime today, but as everyone in the house is perfectly healthy and none of us have any symptoms of any sort, I’m pretty sure we’re fine. (Obviously I know asymptomatic infections are a huge concern; I’m just thinking that out of all of us, odds are one of us would have something, right??? My sister-in-law and her son have also continued to feel fine and test negative, and their exposure was closer to my mother-in-law than we were.) Crossing my fingers!

This has been kind of a bummer of a week in terms of news, so my apologies for the downers I’ve got here. Here’s what I found interesting online this week!

 

Welcome to the Great Reinfection

I swear, it feels like half the people I know are sick right now. My mother-in-law and her partner, with COVID. One of my best friend’s daughters, with influenza type A. Another friend down with COVID. My mother-in-law has it for the second time. Reinfections up your chance of death, which is obviously concerning (and I watched a thread on reddit that chronicled a man who mocked COVID, got infected, continued to mock taking any precautions – including getting vaccinated, which he refused to do – got reinfected, continued to make fun of people taking precautions to avoid getting sick, got infected a third time…and died. All this was chronicled via screenshots from his Facebook account).

Be safe, my friends. This is all so worrisome, and despite so many people acting like this is over, it’s very much not.

 

Conservative group launches ‘Hide the Pride’ to remove books from library pride displays

My kingdom for the day these grown adults develop the maturity to learn to mind their business and walk away when something doesn’t apply to them, instead of acting like snotty, cliquish middle schoolers.

There are occasionally displays of things like sports books at the library. I have zero interest in most sports books. Not really a fan, and I have massive concerns about the long-term affects of repeat concussions suffered by athletes in many sports. Should I start stashing these sports books in various hiding spots around the library, or should I realize that people are allowed to make their own decisions about what activities are right for them? I think we all know the answer to that, and I wish these pride book hiders would come to the same realization (besides, folks, if your kid sees one rainbow-covered book and falls in love with someone of the same gender…it wasn’t the book that did it. That’s who your beloved kiddo was the entire time, and you should love and support them for who they are, because we don’t get to decide our kids’ personalities or sexual orientation. Sorry. Not possible).

 

New research shows microplastics are capable of carrying diseases that make us sick

Eek! This has horrific implications for…well, a lot of things, really, but future pandemics are at the forefront of my mind. I loathe plastic and wish I could get it out of my life completely, but it’s nearly impossible, though I’m definitely always looking for ways to cut down (*so* hard with a small child; nearly everything marketed to them is made of plastic…). If you’re looking for reasons to get plastic out of your life, this article might be the kick in the pants you need. Not that I think that one person’s efforts will solve this, but many drops fill a bucket and all that…

And finally…

 

This is collapse – some of us just aren’t paying attention.

This is a tough article, and the links it contains are hard to read and even harder to look at, but it’s important.

Society is falling apart, but we’re loath to admit it. Whether that’s due to desperation, hubris, denial, or some unholy combination of all of the above, all the many, many problems we’re seeing right now are evidence that where we’re headed is nowhere good, and it’s going to be a lot worse a lot faster for the poor and for people in developing nations (in some cases, it’s already there with devastating effects for people in places like Afghanistan and Somalia). What do we do about it? I don’t know there’s anything we *can* do; when the people in charge don’t care – quite literally do not care if other people are starving and dropping dead in front of them (or entire classrooms of children are annihilated by high-powered weapons) – I don’t know there’s anything that we, the little people can do, short of a general strike. If we as a society stop making them money, maybe then they’d listen. That’s the only thing they care about anyway. But just noticing and admitting how bad things truly are? That’s not nothing.

 

Take care of yourself. Be safe (N95s if you’re indoors, please!); have an exit plan for wherever you go (these mass shootings are horrifying); turn off the news and put down your phone or close your laptop when things get too much. It’s important to take care of yourself not just physically, but emotionally as well. Staying informed is a good thing, but there comes a point where it’s all too much. It’s okay to walk away and do something good for yourself and others when you need a break.

Wishing you all a peaceful, relaxing weekend. Shalom, friends. : )