unconnected

a few months before the virus was known (or maybe before it travelled outside of China) a cousin of mine visited us. I also called my sis to come over that Friday evening. we played some card game late into the night, slept on sofas to accommodate the numbers in our one bed tiny apartment. and next morning we suddenly decided to go have breakfast at one of our favorite cafes. barely a 12 min drive in the mornings, this place is a 2-minute walk from my Mausi's. so said cousin called them also on our way there, although k me and sis were looking forward to spending some time without older ppl. anyway so we were all sitting around two tables pushed together digging into our sourdough toasts, eggs, avocados, mushrooms etc. when the conversation turns to our impact on the environment. someone mentioned plastic, someone mentioned incrreased packaging cos Amazon had spoiled us waiting for shopping to come home, and someone mentioned saving on gas/petrol if you shopped online, and so on...

I suddenly blurted "human numbers have exploded on this planet. people really should stop having kids." I hadn't expected it but this was too radical for my uncle and aunt (they are grandparents to a sweet lil girl now) and even for my cousin. K of course teased me by asking me if I was also proposing reducing these numbers in other ways. I made it clear I was only talking about reducing the increase rather than that of current numbers. 

People don't think of themselves as animals, as part of tiny blocks in this natural ecosystem of the earth. on another occasion I remember same aunt asking out aloud, rhetorically, what if any was the purpose of mosquitoes in ecologies. I've been reading David Quammen's Spillover, and I was thinking y'day how mosquitoes keep human (and ape) numbers in check by spreading various types of malaria. It's our superciliousness that we think we are at the top of (or disconnected from) the natural food chain and world ecology. the very fact of our exploding numbers makes us easier prey as it becomes easier for microscopic and near invisible half-dead pathogens to colonize our species. everything is food for something else, and sometimes is fodder simply to reproduce.

I've started going out for runs again. the first day I realised how my quads were atrophying without distance running. running on my mat only uses the lower leg, so much so that I had stopped feeling my quads alive at all. for two days after that first run in the park last week, they were sore from being woken up from their long slumber. same park where I used to run in 2007. now I drive to get to it but it's still not far. moreover, it's mosquito free, which is a miracle this year what with healthcare having other worries and having ignored spraying against the insects. 

we are urbanized wildlife, and so are Anopheles, and SARS CoV2.