When the word “sieve” comes to mind, it is simple that many of us associate it with the common kitchen tool used for sifting any form of food material. Indeed, the sieve is a very useful tool to have around, especially when you want to remove something to separate unwanted particles that cannot pass through the woven mesh. Personally, I see this system that filters "what is unwanted from what is needed" as existent everywhere in our surroundings. Planes use High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters, which are capable of removing 99.97% of contaminants. It is important for the aircraft to have quality fuel for efficient friction and general maintenance.

To minimise the wear on pumps and injectors, fuel filters ensure that clean fuel is received by the engine. Since the Mediterranean is the second most affected by pollution after the Caribbean, a French company was the first to launch its environmentally friendly vessel, La Piana. The engines are equipped with particle filters to cut air pollution, claiming the world’s first title in maritime transport. The filters capture 99% of sulphur oxides and 99.9% of fine and ultra-fine particles, which are the most dangerous to human health. The ecosystem has its own filters.

“In 2017, researchers at the RIKEN Centre for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan published a study which showed Funaria hygrometrica, a certain type of moss, can absorb a large amount of lead due to a special kind of acid in its cell walls.” An MIT research team produced a model using xylem in pine to filter bacteria from the water. “Xylem is the porous sapwood that takes water from the roots of the tree up towards the leaves. The xylem acts as a natural filtration system for the tree.” Arsenic and bacteria are all potential killers to our health. This is just a few to mention. There is an endless list of examples that help us better understand filtration. We comprehend better just by looking around at how vital this basic system of eliminating the bad is. The world and our beings would be endangered, and the quality of everything would deplete at a drastic rate if the ability of filtration were not efficient, albeit existent.

Preservation through filtration

As we saw what HEPA filters do in preserving the longevity of its parts, it also correlates to the benefits of filtering in our personal lives. We are bombarded with all sorts of information and events in our everyday existence, many of which are truly unnecessary. Many times we ingest all of these into our systems due to peer pressure or just weak decision-making skills. The effects of such ingestion into our minds will deplete our being in the long run. As humans, we need to identify our priorities and strongly oppose those that go against our system. It is crucial for the long-term functioning of our minds to create an in-built filtering system within our structure. Over time, we need to upgrade the configuration of the process until its efficiency is 99.97% or more, if possible.

The ability to filter out the bad around us will help us create a healthy mind that even others can enjoy. Just like the presence of arsenic and bacteria that the moss eliminates, we need to be apt at identifying these foreign particles that are many times hidden within the scheme. Preservation will reach an all-time high with the act of conscious filtration.

Whenever I am surrounded by a crowd of people who bring a heavy-cast shadow upon my mind and soul, I never retract from the crowd. I continue swimming among them, but I activate my in-built, state-of-the-art filtration system, and I do this for my own indelible good.

Our aspiration should not be to escape the process but rather to face it with confidence that your effective and efficient filtration system will do the job for you. Only those who have not invested in this much-needed system should shy away from places and events that serve no goodness.

If animals can exist and develop a well-functioning micro-filtration structure inside of them, filtering even bacteria, this brings much confidence in what more humans can do with our minds.

Filtration leads to pearls

No one knows that one single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, removing excess nitrogen in water and depositing it on their shells as they grow, just like clams and shellfish. These creatures are also known as feeders. They are our God-given natural aquatic filters in our ecosystem. A question lingered as to how pearls were formed, and I discovered that it is usually an “irritant” that gets into the system of the oyster, and with the presence of this irritant or parasite, the natural defence of the oyster is activated to secrete layers of aragonite and conchiolin, the same material found on their shells.

This creates a nacre that enrobes the irritant in return, protecting the mollusc from it. This nacre is commonly known to us as mother-of-pearl. An interesting process of filtering the bad. But what comes to mind is that many times, bad things happen to many people, and many of these times they are never able to erase or just continue with expelling the bad. Instead, they have to live with it. What can be done is to put something of yourself into that bad experience, and just as nacre is formed for the preservation of the mollusc, we have to continue to coat that bad experience with good and not allow it to corrupt us from within, since it has now become an undeniable part of us. This experience that was meant for evil must not destroy us. Just like a parasite lives off our good, we have to kill it with our goodness and let the beauty of priceless treasures form within us.

We can only do this when we have built ourselves a reliable and well-functioning filtration system that must never fail us. And if we are encountered by abysmal situations, we should never give in to these parasites. Let us keep our fellow oysters in mind, remembering what should be done. And in actively and consciously behaving this way, we are creating pearls that will string our necks and make us shine with a value so infinite.