Cinnabar & Phos

In a 2017 Japanese animation series, Houseki no Kuni (Land of the Lustrous), I was taken with the no-nonsense colloquial writing, character development, voice actor performance, and drop-dead, gorgeous scenery.

(for an informed discussion of deeper levels of humanity as portrayed in this manga/anime, watch the YouTube video by Avo Rabo)

There is a subtle implied love story between two characters that never really fleshes out, but is imbued throughout the 12 episodes.

Series that are heavily based on a theme are interesting on another level when it comes to being “informative”.

These various characters are based on minerals and gems, so they are luminous and bound by their “strengths”.

Phos and Cinnabar is an interesting suggestion of conflicted or forced relationships between two “weak” strength minerals, but I thought,

“Hmm, was there a reason the author might have suggested the combo of these two characters? Perhaps something in their base physiology, compound, or make-up?”

And so, I spent some time trying to find pictures of or articles about the combination of cinnabar and phosphate.

And, lo, there was an article:

Mercury stabilization in chemically bonded phosphate ceramics

Sadly, there were no images right off that depicted their combination…

But as for the article, the gist is about hazardous waste, and how using phosphate (among other chemicals/minerals) will help the silver, mercury, cinnabar to stabilize by making it bind with them, settling out of toxic waste water creating a ceramic formation

(an overly simplified explanation, yes, but you likely aren’t interested in digging deeper – but if you are, access the article)

The toxicity is still present, but it is now settled, concentrated, and I guess, in some form “protected” in its binding.

It would still need to be stored somewhere, and labeled appropriately, but theoretically it would wrestle the list of potential problems into a more tangible, workable form.

Transient life forms on Earth cannot come into contact with radioactive and/or toxic waste without irreparable damage or even death.

Though a few outliers might inform otherwise (Godzilla, X-men, Marvel Superheroes, etc) there are few happy endings after exposure to hazardous radiation or other toxic waste (Chernobyl, Hiroshima, etc).

Any of us can make small steps in evolution

• accepting change
• adapting
• making lifelong habits, changes, exceptions, etc
  • that will help our descendants or those that come after

– but again – “small-steps” (e.g. micro-evolution)

We must come to accept that all of us are fragile on some level

Some of us are more fragile than others

And so, the relationship between these two might amount to something, and they might not

Together Cinnabar & Phos can take something bad for others, isolate it, contain it, and after many, many years, it will lose its potential for harming the transient lifeforms of the planet…

As with the YouTube video discussion above – the concept of utility, purpose, work, and idleness play a role in all of our lives.

Though some of us will toy with the idea of not having anything to do – based on an assumption that to be idle would define one as either supremely rich (and happy) – or on the flip-side it could also mean you are helpless and homeless (apathetic, melancholy, depressed) – relying on others for everything.

“Idle hands are the devils playground” <-point and case lay-man terms & rhetoric villian-izing of the word *idle and its role in our work-filled professionally-pressed lives

This relationship – both in the manga and in the world itself speaks to a need for certain things to be contained and idle for a LONG time.

And that this can actually be beneficial to the majority.

The issue that follows is that the majority recognize this importance and not look at the idea with scorn saying ‘they neither of them achieve, promote, or amount to anything’.

That is actually their strength – and the strength of all of us if we accept it

The solidification of Cinnabar & Phos can absorb something lethal to most of us, and hold on to it for a seemingly indeterminable time

That, too, can be worthy of respect. That, too, is awe-inspiring.

Phosphate crystals can be found in your own “waste water” urine, too! But that’s for another discussion time