The terrifying yet meaningful journey of a blue plastic grocery bag.
OG Art by Luciana Collier
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Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Additional Vocals: Cori Birce
Season 2 of 7MS is made possible by Fishbowl
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7 Minute Stories Season 2 is made possible by Fishbowl.
Yes, it is, Cori.
We're not just saying that. Aaron, can you tell everyone a little bit about what you've been doing on Fishbowl?
Yeah, I've been doing the Fishbowl Live talks about storytelling and podcasting. It's been great.
I may or may not jump in and occasionally interrupt him and try and redirect him. And it's really fun and probably a little annoying for him. But I also have been using Fishbowl for career questions that I have that I would maybe be a little embarrassed to ask if people knew who I was.
Yeah, it's the anonymity factor.
Yeah. It's so awesome to be able to just confidently ask the question about something that I should probably know or that someone assumes that I know and get the right answer.
That's the thing. Posting, sharing, participating in the conversation, anonymously in these bowls. It's unlike any other networking app, right? Because it's freedom. It's freedom. When you post, you don't have to water down your comments for fear of getting fired. It's really empowering and we'd love if you join us there.
Absolutely. So to do that, go to joinfishbowl.com/7ms. That's joinfishbowl.com/7ms and download the free app today. You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. Visit our website, 7minutestories.com. That's the number 7minutestories.com to see the awesome new merch available this season. Choose from stickers, koozies, T-shirts, tote bags, and more. I have to say the tote bag is my favorite. This episode, The Blue Plastic Bag.
Every time I'm waiting in line, getting ready for check out, I always get distracted by the Coinstar machine at the front of the grocery store. For some reason, I always think it's an arcade, like a vending machine. I'm always like, "What's in there?" I realize it's a Coinstar machine. And then next to it is the lotto machines with all the regulars playing the lotto games. Fascinating to me.
And I realized when I was lost in thought, the young lady bagging my groceries was trying to get my attention. She's like, "Sir, paper or plastic?" It was a Friday night. I was in a bit of a rush, had to make dinner for the kids, these type of things. It's like a quick turnaround. So I just said, "Plastic". And right away, she starts bagging the groceries.
There I go, walking out with them, go through the parking lot, load up the back seat, a little bit of the trunk, and I hop in my car and I just sit down for a second and I was really enjoying a little bit of the warmth because it was one of the first warm days after a long winter, and turned the car on.
I'm looking through my windshield and I see this young man just across the way in the parking lot. He's putting his groceries away, and he was taking something delicate out of one of his plastic bags. One of the blue plastic bags just floats away from him and just falls to the ground. It's just standing there, floating, not going anywhere. And he's looking at it, and I'm looking at him. He's got a decision to make. He's thinking, "Do I pick up this plastic bag or I just go in my car and leave it?" He was really thinking hard about it. He stood there for like five seconds. He got in his car and left.
And I'm watching this blue plastic bag just bounce around like a jellyfish. It just ends up getting picked up by the wind and it flies off into the air, over the grocery store, over the trees, into the adjacent neighborhood, off into the distance. And I thought for a second, "It's kind of pretty." Then I thought about it some more, and I said to myself, "The beginning of that plastic bag journey in the air, it's nice to look at. But is there anything uglier than the end of that journey?"
I mean, just picture this. You're going on a Sunday drive, windows are open, winds going through your hair. Maybe it's the change of season fall, and you're looking out at nature and you're looking at a tree, maybe you see some beautiful leaves. Then there's some naked tree branches. And then there's this blue plastic bag and hailed on the branches, just sitting there in the wind. It just turns my stomach. You know what I'm saying?
Or you're at a little pond. You see the ducks. There's this mother duck and the little ducklings following it. You're like, "Oh, it's amazing. Nature, it's beautiful." And out of the corner of your eye, you see right on the bank where the cattails are, couple of plastic bags just sopping wet, sitting there in mocking mud. Unreal.
I'm sitting in the car and thinking about this, and I decided I'm going to Google something. So I type in, "How many plastic bags end up in the ocean?" Now before I tell you this result, I'm naive here. I should know more about the environmental ramifications of pollution, especially with plastics. I knew it was bad, theoretically. I just didn't know enough. We do our part. We recycle a ton at the house. I'm taking out recycling weekly. Just trying to do our part.
But I'm guilty, too. I get caught all the time putting aluminum cans in the trash because I'm too lazy to go to the garage and put them in the recycling bin. But I'm putting hundreds of pounds of recycling. It feels like every week. So we're doing what we can.
But I look up at this statistic that I find. And it's confirmed on a lot of different sources and websites that the US alone is responsible for around 327 billion bags ending up in the ocean every year. 327 billion. I can't even conceive of that number. Look, the ocean's big, but there's no freaking excuse. And I'm wrestling with this.
By the way, I know I got to get home and feed the kids. I can't leave the car because now I'm staring at everybody and they all got the bags. I'm seeing bags everywhere. I'm looking at them. They got blood on their hands. I got blood in my car. She asked me, "Paper, plastic?" I said, "Plastic." I'm in it with everybody else. And my stomach feels sick. One word just kept coming into my consciousness: control.
Now, usually with that word, I'm in a battle with it because I can't get enough control. I want control all the time. Can never have enough. And I'm always focused on the lack of control that I have, that we have. Friend gets hit by a car, can't control it. Can't control where you're born. Can't control if you're born at all. Can't control that you're born in a war-torn country or a safe society.
These are all things that sometimes feels like chaos. Even in a modern world where we have so many elements of control that humankind wishes that they had: housing and automobiles and temperature control and modern medicine. But look, even with that COVID, it shows that even on the cutting edge, we're still a victim to it. And I've always looked at it as a negative thing.
But then I just thought about it right there in that car, and I realized it comes down to paper or plastic. It's that simple. And it's not just bags and grocery stores. It's life. It's that guy choosing to pick up the bag in the parking lot. It's me choosing not to be a jerk and put aluminum cans in the trash. Corey saying, "Put it in the recycling." I say I do it 90% of the time. "Do it 100%."
It's just doing the next right thing in front of me. Can't control everything; I can control that. Especially now after going through this. Every time I go to the store, paper or plastic. Paper. But everyone else has plastic. Doesn't matter. They have all the blue bags. I'm going paper.
Imagine, speaking of control, if so many people in a population just did that next right thing, even a higher percentage than they do now, who knows? There could be billions of less bags in the ocean. So now, every time I go to the grocery store, I think about a roomy-inspired quote from a movie that not many people saw. The villain says, "No matter what you do, it will never amount to anything more than a single drop in a limitless ocean." And the hero responds, "What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?"
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato, audio production by Ken Wendt. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at kenwendt.com. That's KenW-E-N-D-T.com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at petewhitehead.com. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. And lastly, I'm Cori Birce. Make sure to tune in next week for another story.
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