It’s the last week of October. Normally, this is the time when we slice our pumpkins and bring out the ghouls. We hang up our skeletons, dig some graves and bury some bones; however, this year, we have different things on our mind.
Who cares about Halloween when there are real monsters lurking around every corner? With the Swine Flu arriving, and deciding to stay for a while, we all have bigger things to worry about than what makeup to wear or what costume to choose.
Or so the evening news wants us to believe. It’s a shame, really; Halloween only comes once a year, and the flu seems to be around forever. I understand I should be calling it H1N1, but ‘swine flu’ sounds so much better this time of year, don’t you think? It kind of fits the season.
Oh, I know; I should be taking this more seriously, but believe me, I took it plenty seriously all last week, as I watched my son lying listlessly on the couch, a bucket nearby, clutching the thermometer as if it was a life boat. He got over it, and is back in school. School is also where my daughter is, and there, as in every public building, they do what’s necessary: they Wash Their Hands.
‘Wash your hands!’ I read on my daily emails. ‘Please, wash your hands’, it says on storefront windows, on posters at the community building, in the halls of my synagogue. ‘Remind your children to wash their hands’, my doctor says. They are washing their hands so much, their knuckles are raw and red, and that can’t be good.
“What”, I want to say, “do you think my children are doing? Digging through the litter box and licking their fingers? Of course they wash their hands!”
It’s not as if washing our hands is the only weapon we have against the flu. We can avoid sneezing in other people’s faces, not share our drinks, and maybe French kissing complete strangers should go on the back burner for a while. Yet, when it comes to this flu season, it seems as if the only thing we can tell each other is to wash our hands. I want to know who started this; who’s out there NOT washing their hands? Shouldn’t you always wash your hands, flu season or not?
I commiserate to my mother about this whole situation; she lives far away from the US and usually keeps a cool head.
“It’s just another flu,” I tell her, “It’s not as if we’ve got the plague.”
“Well,” she says, “just, you know, make sure to wash your hands.”
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