Our air is filthy. People don’t notice it, because they’re born in it, sleep in it, drive in it, work in it, and die in it.
It’s a shame that modern society depends on the production of pollution to support its lifestyles. Just today I was walking along a busy thoroughfare, buffeted by the fast moving air wakes of the many cars as they passed. My nose was numb, as it always is when I take a walk along that street. There’s no very good way to avoid the path, because it’s the main artery that connects my home to the local park. So, I held my breath.
There is a little bubbly creek that runs under the road at one point. Passing over it, I pulled a paper towel from my coat pocket, and folded it twice to make a four inch square of tissue. This I put over my nose. Ahhhh – the aroma at that moment reached my nose! Gone was the stinging ammonia tinged vapor plume of the roadway, and here was the algae fishy smell from the memories of my youth. The smells of the creek could now be recognized by the quantum detectors housed in my nose, because the sooty automotive exhaust particulates that I would normally have inhaled were partially filtered by the paper. Apparently, algae and fish smells are smaller molecules. Good for them.
In my youth we didn’t have such damned dirty air. I could smell the fishy fishes and the tinky tadpoles. So nice. So very nice. When will Mr. Musk build enough electric cars to erase the nasty fossil fuel ones that passed by me today? We should shut down the roads til it’s done. A good vacation for the population could be had, and they’d much better appreciate their furlough with the nice air they’d be breathing.
Many Curious Habits 