I raised this question at a recent family gathering, because I see it as my role to raise such questions:
Assume that you’re living alone. How often should you clean the drinking cup you use in at your bathroom sink?
The first answer came from a brother-in-law who cautiously answered in the form of a question, “Every three months?”
The next answer, from another brother-in-law who was more confident: “I didn’t know that there was any time requirement.” A third brother-in-law chimed in too, “Yeah, I hadn’t thought that you actually had to clean that.
One of my sisters gallantly added: “I think it turns orange to let you know when it’s time.
We then moved on to discuss how often one should wash one’s bed sheets.
Cleanliness is such a personal thing, of course. I work with two guys who represent two extremes regarding germs. The first fellow commonly uses anti-germ gel and preaches the need to use a paper towel to grab the handle of the door when exiting a rest public room. Germs, you know.
A second fellow, formerly a teacher (which might or might not explain anything), says “Bring it on! He proudly grabs the door handle while leaving public rest rooms and knows that he is thereby exposing himself to germs that will, in the long run, immunize himself from even worse germs in the future. His approach reminds me of Nietzsche’s “What does not destroy me makes me stronger.”
I also mentioned this rest room door handle issue at my family gathering. One of my brothers-in-law revealed his strategy: “I don’t use a paper towel, but I grab only the very top of the door handle with only the tips of two fingers; it’s the part no one else touches.”
I intervened, “But that’s exactly my strategy! People like you are contaminating the exact part of the door handle that I grab. Further, people like you–how many of you are there?–are concentrating your germs on that one square inch I had believed to be safe territory. We are risking each others’ lives!”
I know that this is all perhaps a bit too revealing, but there it is. If anyone else would like to weigh in on any of these critical issues, here’s your chance.
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