WOW!!

When I was a little girl—actually the whole time I lived with my parents—my mom would ask me to clean up my sprawling clutter, and I would simply re-stack, or push it around. I remember how she would look emphatically into my eyes and say, "THROW. IT. AWAY." Ever since, I've been fascinated with the things people choose to keep or dispose of. I am more of a "just-in-case" keeper, but I've recently noticed another reason for not getting rid of things. And I think it's universal.

When something grosses a person out, it's likely that they will ignore it for as long as possible.

Some people would argue that we're just lazy, but I see it happening around the house with disgusting things in particular. For example, I made a large bowl of macaroni and cheese, leaving it out with a paper towel covering, to keep it from the flies. I offered the leftovers to Will, who ate some and neglected to replace the covering. When I returned to find more mac, I counted my blessings and dug in. Only moments into my second helping, a fly crawled out from inside the noodley caverns. I was disgusted and promptly put the bowl back, with the covering on. I decided that this would serve as the perfect experiment to my theory. When the same Will later discovered that there was more mac, he was about to shovel it in until I told him about the fly. Then, the telling moment: grimacing, he put the cover back on the bowl and set it aside.


And so the stale bowl of pasta sat for about a week and a half. My theory was correct. Instead of immediately disposing of the spoiled food, he ignored it. The ol' out-of-sight-out-of-mind. But it was still within the range of scent. Tonight, I gave in and decided to scrape the thing out. I was, after all, the one guilty of this dirty experiment. To my delight, there was a living surprise waiting inside the moldy orange goop. Well, many surprises.



Now I owe him a new metal bowl and spoon. But the experience of seeing, even cultivating, real, live maggots was truly priceless. I'll have to include an addendum to the lab writeup.