(Originally written, 12/11/2008)
At three months pregnant with my daughter, my wife, Sarah, put all of our plastic kitchenware and dishes in a large-sized U-Haul box and set them in front of the door for me to take to Goodwill when I got home. Plastic cups, cereal bowls, mixing bowls, plates, and cutlery filled the box so that the lid could not be closed. We’d been married for over three years. I was accustomed to this type of behavior. Sarah is paranoid, sometimes neurotic, and always obsessive. Her anxiety gets the better of her frequently. She logs onto the internet and finds a plethora of things to be scared of. Most of the time, these things are invalid, minor, or propaganda promoted by fanatics—full body yeast infestations linked to memory loss, out of control herpes colonization causing chronic fatigue, the world ending in 2012, just to name a few. Usually, she just needs a little time for her intellect to assert itself and defeat her anxiety. Normally, it takes anywhere from a week to a month. If I get involved—and I usually do—then the time usually takes a few days at most.
When I walked in the front door and had to step around the box of plastic. I looked inside the box. We didn’t have replacements for many of the plastic things in the box, like our colander. I asked Sarah, “What’s with the box?” She told me that it needs to go to Goodwill and asked me to take it before they closed. I put my keys in my pocket and sat down at the kitchen table. “Why are we giving our dishes away?”
She said, “I was on the internet today and found a website….”
A website, here we go again. I listened, nodded and smiled until she was done. Then I opened my laptop to read the sites and pages that she’d been reading. I do this every time so that I can find something to refute her fears and make her feel better. I usually find some fact or theory that doesn’t quite seem right. I tell her about it and we discuss why it isn’t right. In the end, she feels better— until the next time. […Read More…]
Plastic: The Silent Threat was originally published onThe Fake Italian.