February 19, 2020

by drplasticpicker

We are getting there. I am at 153 bags of ocean bound plastic collected, 590 items salvaged. I have written 133 blog posts and 134 Instagram posts, and have passed 450 Instagram “followers.” The Instagram is more for fun and motivation and I am not seeking more Instagram friends, but somehow everyday there are more. About 200-300 people click onto the blog every day, so some folks are seeing the less-plastic-please help ocean plastic-pick message.

But what gives me hope are the tangibles, the changes that I know are happening in the real world. I know I picked up a lot of plastic, and I know that we are close to getting our organization to agree to bring in Eco-America training to our HMO. I see more and more reusable coffee mugs and water bottles at work. We actually cancelled all the single-use water bottles for all the MD meetings, and will just send a reminder out for everyone to bring their own water. We also changed our lunch order to half vegetarian, and for everything to be in large trays and not individual plastic clam-shell containers anymore. That way there is less food waste and less plastic waste in general. And a father in clinic told me his daughter’s school has asked all parents to avoid single use plastic items and moving toward zero-waste lunches.

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February 15, 2020

by drplasticpicker

There are those rare people in life that embody joy and happiness. They are sometimes irreverent but always positive, and make those of us who are staid middle-aged middle-managers look at events and people from a different angle, maybe even upside down! And when one of those rare people is a MD, than they are even closer to unicorn status.

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February 14, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Martin et. al. just published this month an article that explains it all, “Nature contact, nature connectedness and associations with health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviors.” I have to email the HMO librarian about getting the article, because it cost $39.99. But the highlights are that

• Visiting nature > once/week was associated with better health.
• Nature connectedness was positively related to eudaimonic wellbeing. I had to look up eudaimonic, it means “a contented state of being happy and healthy and prosperous.”
• Nature connectedness was positively associated with pro-environmental behaviors.

This explains it all. I sometimes was unsure if I was going on the right path, but this is my path. I need to lead people to the beach to experience nature and also to clean the earth. I will try to pick our next dedicated beach cleaning soon.

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February 11, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It is 311AM on Wednesday morning, and I am not sure what happened last night. My body is a bit out of wack. It is less often out of wack then before, but anytime we have a middle managment meeting – my circardian rhythm gets shuffled. Only good things happened at the meeting, and I noticed all the nurse managers had mostly reusable coffee mugs. Even the big boss commented on how wasteful all those little plastic creamer containers were, and looked up at me and gave me a kind smile. They know that I am Dr. Plastic Picker and I have not been fired yet. The democratic primaries are underway, and for the first time in years I am watching to see what happens. Again Dr, Plastic Picker is non-partisan.

I am a single issue person, I just want a liveable earth with oxygen and fish and beautiful butterflies. But with those dreams, there is so much to be Hopeful for this Wednesday. Here is our Five Reasons to Be Hopeful, 2-12-2020.

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February 11, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I have felt grateful for many things. I am grateful to have been raised by two loving parents, who raised me with an abundance of kindness and genorosity. I am grateful to have been a voracious reader as a child and now can call myself a real blogger! My own grandmother was rich in heart and family but poor in monetary wealth and unable to read in her native language. I am grateful to have had dedicated teachers especially in our high school’s IB Program https://drplasticpicker.com/drplasticpicker-remembers-i-was-weaned-on-activism/.

There is an emerging medical literature on the power of gratitude. In fact, at one of our big corporate meetings they spoke about gratitude exercises and gave us the book above https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-plastic-picker-agitates-for-the-ocean-at-a-regional-meeting/.

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February 10, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It’s Sunday morning and I usually would go to the beach, but my body is very tired and I am afraid I might fall. I am trying to stay in tune with my body and most mornings I have the energy and the need to go plastic picking. But last night, we had our department party and it was a big success. It was fun to put on the little black dress I wear just once a year and fancy sparkly wedge heels. Mr. Plastic Picker agreed that I looked nice. Mr. Plastic Picker looked very nice too in his blue blazer from Macys. Despite leaving early the fun and the revelry early at 9pm, drplasticpicker is too tired to go plastic picking. Plus I have to work this afternoon at our after hours clinic from 130-5pm. Humans are not meant to stay up late, and the world is not meant to have so much light pollution as humans are partying late into the late. Light pollution is causing the insect apocolypse https://drplasticpicker.com/xeres-invertebrate-society-can-a-pediatricians-avatar-drplasticpicker-help-save-the-western-monarch-butterfly/.

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February 9, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I have been meaning to write this blogpost about 6 weeks ago, but it wasn’t quite the right time. I had just sketched out the title, and the topic has been percolating in my tension-headache-free mind https://drplasticpicker.com/tension-headaches-drplasticpicker-cures-myself/. But yesterday I saw one of my beloved families that I have cared for for over 10 years. They were one of the first families that I was their “pediatrician.” I appreciate them sticking with me because sometimes I wonder how much I knew 10 years ago when I had just finished a research year at NIH and had been mostly doing only endocrine clinical work. I had not looked at tympanic membranes in a long time. I remember thinking, gosh I would rather have a new onset type 1 diabetic patient than a rule out ear infection.

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February 7, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It is 72 hours since the 2nd Office Beach Clean Up. Usually I will tell families if the fever is gone after 72 hours, than no need to come back. The virus has subsided and it is over. Perhaps when the contagion is good https://drplasticpicker.com/behaviors-are-contagious-i-am-trying-to-spread-a-good-contagion/, the euphoria and goodwill can last well after the 72 hour period. Perhaps it can last a lifetime.

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