Google‘s AI reports that the first fully synthetic plastic, Bakelite, was invented by Leo Baekeland in 1907. Baekeland’s Scottish rival, James Swinburne, made it to the patent office a day later. Had Swinburne made it to the patent office two days earlier, my surname (even though it lacks the “e”) might have been much more widely known. But, then, how well-known is the surname, Baekeland? “What if” questions are interesting but never can be answered with certainty. Roughly forty years after Bakelite was patented, the use of plastics began steady growth, with an exceptional growth spurt in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, plastics are ubiquitous and essentially eternal. I glance around my office and see plastics all around me: the barrels of pens and highlighters; the grips of scissors; my computer monitor; the body of my paper-shredder; the majority of the parts of desk chairs; the body and many other parts of my ink-jet printer; all the visible parts of my aging calculator; the cap of a protein drink; and on and on. What if plastics had never been invented? How different would the interiors of automobiles and airplanes be, compared to what they are like today? No one can provide reliable answers. Nor can anyone say with any degree of certainty how the English language might have evolved in the absence of Shakespeare’s contributions. “What if” questions cannot be answered with facts, but they provide fodder for the imagination. In other words, curiosity can generate fiction. But it also can lead to facts, like the existence of Bakelite.
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Almost every time I drive through an automatic car wash, two thoughts run through my mind: 1) are they better for the environment, or worse, than manual car washes? and 2) wouldn’t it be nice if high-pressure air driers (like in car washes), appropriately heated, were available for home showers? Not only would the home shower air driers dry one’s body (in luxurious warmth), the direction of their pressurized air could be directed to glass doors and shower walls, making the use of squeegees (to combat water spots) unnecessary. Towels might become anachronisms, too, if pressurized air were available. But would the energy required to power the air jets be wasteful? The differences between luxury and necessity are striking. Luxuries, though, have come to be expected…to the extent they often are considered necessities. In reality, necessities are rare; most of what we call necessities are, in fact, luxuries redefined. Humans in many cultures and societies have become demanding; to the point we cannot differentiate between what we need and what we simply want.
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I wonder whether the generally agreed (by psychologists and psychiatrists) definitions of anxiety and depression are legitimate? It seems to me the two states of mind represent differences in degree along the same spectrum. Yet I rarely (if ever?) read that anxiety can “mature” into depression or that depression can “soften” into anxiety. The symptoms of the two are described in ways that make them seem similar, but despite those similarities, professionals often insist the two mental conditions are unique. Professionals may have a deeper understanding than do I; they may differentiate between anxiety and depression in ways similar to how diagnostic specialists might differentiate between eczema and psoriasis. I have no business questioning medical professionals’ classification systems; unless, of course, incorrect classifications could put me at risk. At that point, I become a doctor of Googlish medicine.
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Silliness does not always wash away concerns. Laughter is not a guaranteed cure for worry. But they are better analgesics than perpetual weeping. Yet none of them can compare to dreamless sleep.
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I will spend as much time as necessary today (and tomorrow, if necessary) working on gathering and organizing materials my tax return. I would rather work on the tax return for the world’s richest man, in preparation for his lifetime sentence for tax evasion. But, alas, I must focus my efforts on my own 1040. Where is the justice, I wonder?
Loved the expression “…Doctor of Googlish medicine.”