Even plastic can be traced to ancient life, but constant such awareness is unbearable.

Evidence

And yet I mean no disrespect for the diatoms and marine invertebrates who two hundred million years ago lived well and fell to the bottom of an ancient sea, where under great pressure of a shifting earth they became oil that was pumped from the ground to a refinery where it was broken down and then polymerized to make the case of my laptop or the cap of the aspirin bottle—but being mindful in the vast network of hyperindustrialized goods really gives me a headache. We weren’t made for that sort of constant awareness. We’ve got work to do. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 540

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges the ideal that we must be mindful of every object’s origins — echoes limits to attention explored in the Soundscape course.