Germ warfare

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     I was sitting on the floor the other day cutting some fabric.  I don’t have a table big enough so the floor seemed the perfect place.  A friend of mine was observing me doing this and was horrified.  Why you may ask?  Because I was wearing shorts and my feet were bare thus part of me was touching the dirty floor.  Okay, I had just sweep and mopped the floor because I knew I was going to be doing this craft project.  The floor was fine and I told him so.  He then stated that I didn’t understand.  We were in the middle of a city thus there were germs, bacteria, infections everywhere.  Sure, maybe out there somewhere but not in my home.  Fine, I’m not what you would call a neat freak or anything.  However, I do clean my home on a regular basis.  There isn’t ever a mound of dirty dishes in my sink.  I don’t leave trash around the house.  I shower every night – hope that isn’t to personal of info to share.  I try not to shake hands with too many people.  And I laughed as I shared this with him.  No, he emphatically replied, I still wasn’t understanding.  All the bad stuff was floating in the atmosphere, every time I opened my door or windows I was letting it into my house.  Um, yeah, this was a guy who needed to be committed to spending a very long time in a clean room.       I thought about his words for a few moments before crafting my reply.  Why do these germs, bacteria, infections land only on the floor?  Are the furniture, countertops, sinks, clothes, food, etc. contaminated as well?  How can he eat anything?  Or has he never really thought this out?  But aren’t most of our fears, at least on some level, irrational?  Who told him about the bad stuff floating in the air to begin with and did he twist what he heard to fit a fear he already had?  I, as gently as I could, told him it was fine.  There wasn’t anything to worry about.  There weren’t any germs or bacteria free floating in the air because if there were, everyone would be sick all of the time.  His response?  Since I grew up out in the country I simply could never understand.  There aren’t any germs or bacteria in nature.  Yikes, he’s clearly never seen how dirty some cows are.  Or how dirty you get camping.  Or heard about giardia.  There really was no reasonable reply I could give.
     Thus I was left with the feeling there are those who have much higher standards of cleanliness than others.  Clearly I'm not a very clean person.  I like to run around barefoot.  I don't mind sitting on the floor on occasion.  However, since I never seems to get sick, I think I'm clean enough.  Germs come and get me, I'm ready for you.

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