A very minor event happened this Christmas at midnight mass that made me laugh. It had nothing to do with the homily, but the family sitting in front of us. Just in case some of you aren’t Catholic (or don’t know about this silly little ritual) but there is a point in each service where the priest blesses peace upon the congregation and then the same congregation is supposed to shake hands with the people around them, “Peace be with you.” It’s at this point I notice it happen - something is being passed down the row in front of us and the ENTIRE family is using hand sanitizer. This bugged the shit out of me, not because I was offended it implied I was unsanitary (though next year maybe I’ll stink palm someone just because of this incident,) but because we are going to sanitize ourselves to death.
It mostly bothers me with how its almost required that everything is recommended to be sanitized for kids, you know, the ones who haven’t yet had a lifetime to build up an immune system. Parents are so fucking paranoid that everything from toys to shopping carts need to be soaked in bleach before a kid can get near it, and in a few years parents will probably have that little fucker in a plastic bubble breathing purified oxygen. We’re essentially creating a generation of kids with bodies that don’t know how to defend themselves.
I’m not saying there is never a need to sanitize, see my bathroom rants for proof of that, but it seems we are worried to excess about keeping things sterilized. So worried that I’ve heard of people who have five bottles of the shit on or close by them at all times (two in the purse, one in a school bag, one the glove box of their car, and one they smuggled in a body cavity). We’ve gone a little overboard with this if it’s to the point that after shaking hands with people to wish them peace and goodwill you feel the need to scrub your hands with bleach and steel wool.
Christ, I can only imagine what kinds of cleaning rituals these people go through after sex...
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Side-note: The “Stink Palm” clip was from the Kevin Smith movie Mallrats. I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t seen it already. One of my favorites of his, absolutely hysterical.
I rarely use those hand sanitizers. I feel like it would be more effective if you washed your hands first. I don't think it really makes a huge difference in whether or not you're going to catch a cold or something.
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