I'm thinking about...
- the theory/practice divide in higher education.
- identity construction among white women working against racism.
- what it means to leave a place where one is deeply rooted.
- my fantastic mother-in-love, Jan Robbins, and how badly I still miss her every day, almost two years after her death.
- how deeply personal my research interests have turned out to be.
- About why we're all so allergic to pollen? How long have people had plant allergies? Is it a post-industrial phenomenon? Did we destroy our respiratory systems with machines?
Well, in natural settings, male and female plants grow in pretty much equal numbers. The female plants scrub the air of all the pollen - they want to be fertilized! For at least 300 years, Americans have been annoyed by the fruit that female trees drop, so they have selected for male trees. This trend has gotten exponentially worse since the invention of suburbia mid-20th century. In the old days, people would make lot of mistakes - hence the disgusting ginkgo fruits in East Coast cities. But now, many developments, especially in the West, can have as much as 90% male trees, flooding the air with pollen that never gets collected.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also believe that we have been screwing our immune systems too, but don't get me started on that!