I don’t wear jewelry. I’ve always been allergic to silver and at the height of the pandemic, I became allergic to my deceased mother’s gold wedding ring, which I had been wearing for 35 years. But when I looked up the Product Environmental Report for my new iPhone, I found out that it too is made of gold and rare earth elements – though 100 percent recycled, Apple tells me. Still, I feel strange. What I used to carry on me that had the most value was the memory of someone long gone. Now it’s a phone.

A YEARs-LONG CREATIVE EXPLORATION OF THE CLIMATE THROUGH 100-WORD STORIES • WEEK 22