Living the Dream

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Day’s Verse:
Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel,
who alone does marvelous deeds.

Praise be to his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and Amen.
Psalm 72:18-19
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Please help me raise money for the MS Bike Tour Cape Cod Getaway. Donate today on my MS Participant page.
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Swine flu is the latest big excitement in the news these days; school closures, wild statements from the media, solemn-sounding doctors making serious pronouncements, and comparisons to the famous 1918 influenza pandemic all abound. Since this is such a serious and alarming danger, I wanted to share the following helpful hints, which I had the pleasure of running across online, to help you stay healthy.

What should I do to keep from getting the flu?

• First and most important: wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
• Try to stay in good general health.
• Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.
• Do not touch surfaces that may be contaminated with the flu virus.
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• If you get sick with influenza, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

While I acknowledge that plenty of these suggestions do have merit — washing your hands really is the best way to avoid getting sick, whether with swine flu or anything else — a few of these suggestions really stood out as outrageously dumb:

• Try to stay in good general health.
• Do not touch surfaces that may be contaminated with the flu virus.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

That first one really hits home, doesn’t it? To avoid getting the flu, I should try to stay in general good health. OK, thanks, I’ll get right on that. As for the other two, well, if I knew a surface had live* flu virus on it, of course I would avoid touching it! It’s not as if I was planning on licking all the doorknobs and tabletops I encounter. And again, if I know somebody has the flu, you think I’m going to share my water with them? These suggestions have transcended being merely self-evident and have entered into a whole new plane of obviousness not previously known to man.

* A debate rages over whether a virus, which consists of DNA or RNA wrapped in a protein coating and which cannot replicate on its own, is actually alive or not.