A few months ago I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. The book’s premise is that a deadly flu sweeps the world, killing most of the population. The few people who survive must adapt to a new world without modern essentials like electricity, refrigeration, gasoline, antibiotics, computers, and so on. The book follows different characters as they react to a world they never expected to live in, and their stories intertwine in beautiful ways.
I find with a really good book like Station Eleven the scenes, characters, and ideas rattle around in my head long after I’ve finished it. I found myself thinking about what I would miss if I lived in the world of the book. Obviously I would miss my computer, my car, the Internet, modern medicine, etc. But what about the non-obvious, non-essential stuff of 21st century civilization? Here’s my list of unnecessary, trivial things that I would miss in the event of a global flu-pocalypse:
- Brightly-colored drinks with fruit and decorations
- Cupcakes with icing
- Glitter glue pens
- Big glossy magazines with aspirational content, like Martha Stewart Living
- Swedish fish candy
- Home improvement television shows
- Moist towelettes
- Nail polish
- Coloring books
- Fancy needlepoint pillow kits
- Gifs of cats
- Gift wrap
- The Hamilton soundtrack
- My Dr. Who Pinterest board
What random things would you miss at the end of the world?
Photo Credit
Photo Fancy drinks by Sarah via flickr and licensed under CC 2.0
This was a thought-provoking read. Now I’m wondering what else I’d miss. 😀
Gummi Bears, coffee, really soft sheets. But still… something to think about and a book to read….. twofers are always good.