Even though I spend my school days working out quantitative problem sets, playing with probabilities and risk ratios, we talk a lot about public hygiene. There is a sticker by every sink reminding us that hand washing is the cornerstone of public health (rather straight forward lesson for $50K, but who's counting?).
Which made what I did this morning all the more regrettable. The woman next to me in the church pew, I noticed almost right away, had the sniffles. The kind that required her to wipe her nose every 10 seconds, which she did with fast food napkins that must have felt so rough on her skin. She also had a cough. And did not abide by the elbow rule. As we drew closer and closer to the part of the service where we shook our neighbors' hands, I grew increasingly worried. I haven't learned much about health economics in the past few months, but I have learned to fear germs. Relief came, however, when about a minute before the greeting of neighbors, she pulled out her mini-Purell bottle. The sight of her rubbing her hands clean made me inordinately happy. Though the joy was short lived. Before the minute was up, she had to wipe her nose again. Then again. And she did not re-Purell.
But church is about welcoming people, no matter what state they're in, and really, even if I didn't believe in chicken-soup aphorisms, there was no avoiding shaking this lady's hand. So when the time came, I went for it. "Peace!" Then, figuring that I shouldn't flu alone, I shook the hands of everyone around me. Lord, have mercy on us all.
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