The Modern Act of Sneezing




When I was a kid, my Dad carried around a big, white handkerchief.  It was usually in his pocket, so when he had to sneeze, he would pull it out, and ha-choo!  Sneeze accomplished, the square of cloth would go back in the pocket, until my Mom washed it, and then the cycle repeated itself.  Come to think of it, he had a stack of these hand kerchiefs. 

I never got one.   Birthdays came and went, milestones were celebrated, I graduated from high school, but a handy hanky was never bestowed upon me.  Instead, I was relegated to using tissue when I had to sneeze, if I was lucky.  Otherwise… it was my hand or the wind.

Ha-CHOO!  Ew, now I have to wash my hand.

HA-Choo!  Sorry, huge crowd of people I happen to be standing in.

HA-CHOO!  Almost made it to the box of tissues in the kitchen - sneezed on dinner instead.

Fast forward to today: Everyone sneezes in their elbow!    What a practical solution.  The germs don’t go on your hand, so you won’t pass them that way.  Nothing gets sprayed into the air at hyper-sneeze-velocities, so the people around you won’t catch the bugs that way.  Brilliant!  But how did this happen?  When did everyone (including myself) learn how to do this?  

I found a video from Sesame Street and the CDC from 2009, is that when this happened?



To combat global warming, we all need to change.  We can work together to undo the changes we’ve introduced to our environment, while still being “fish” in our global earth fishbowl.  It makes sense - there are plenty of proven, practical solutions.    

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