Me, Not Me

I read in the New York Times that we have more cells in our body that are microbes than we have with our own genetic material.  More than half of the living material.  It is somehow unnerving.  And the variety of microbes is truly remarkable.  They will be the new medicine.  A study the article reported showed that kids who live in rural areas are healthier because of dirt.  Urban and suburban kids are missing many beneficial microbes.  Patagonia founder, Yvone Chouinard, the original "Fun Hog," never let his children wash their hands.  He said that it was important for them to adapt to the environment.  He must have happily applauded when he read the report.

I know more germaphobic people than ever before, and they have had their effect on me.  They see germs everywhere.  They are right, I know.  Germs are growing overnight on the damp toothbrush standing in your bathroom.  The dog or cat that goes outside brings in a billion more.  Half the people I work with won't eat in public and they use hand sanitizers incessantly, big pump bottles sitting proudly on their desks.  They all have big spray cans of Lysol, too.

When I was a kid, we used to share soda pop taking turns drinking from the bottle.  We ate off the same popsicle.  Everyone put their dirty hands into the peanut jar.  I guess we got sick.  But my friend's child who is kept germ-free is sick all the time, too.  He gets everything I got and always has some ailment--bad bowels or a runny nose.

Worst of all, I guess, is we really used to kiss.  I'm not sure if kissing is as big as it used to be now that kids begin having sex in elementary school, but for us, kissing was a major thing.  Couples used to sit in corners and just kiss.  It seems weird now.  And I do remember epidemics of mononucleosis running through our junior high school campus.  I feel lucky that I never got a "cold sore."

I have never been a big hand washer, but in the last few years with the outbreak of so many contagious diseases, I have seen the logic in it.  Now. . . I don't know.  Nature hasn't planned itself for my benefit.  I am just a tool.

Nature.  I'm less and less certain what that even means.