Wash Your Hands

 

Having travelled a lot around Alberta and British Columbia in recent months, I have come to see how widespread the warnings about the H1N1 flu is. Those ubiquitous hand sanitizers, sitting on every available public wall, are but one testimony to the government's urgency in the matter.

"Wash your hands on a regular basis!" screams this ad. "Cough into your sleeve!" demands that poster.

Man, sounds like something my mother told me 45 years ago. My mother, like your mother, maybe even your grandmother, had a lot of common sense advice that saved me, my generation, and, by extension, the government, a lot of health issues and expenses.

She is (not 'was' – she turns 86 this year) actually a fellow-Albertan, having married my father around the end of WWII. She fled to BC when she married him, but I returned the favour eight years ago by coming back here. She was part of that round of wives and mothers who insisted on and provided basic home-cooked meals, regular bedtimes, limited junk food, and plenty of fresh air.

I suggest that if we had all listened to our mothers, we wouldn't be in our present mess.

I know it was a simpler world back then, those halcyon days of the 50's and 60's, but there is some merit at replicating those days. In fact, many mothers I know are doing just that, namely, harking back to better eating habits, owning the care and welfare of their own children - rather than letting Big Brother do the dictating.

I suppose underneath my whimsical recollection of yesteryear, I am little angry. You see, I am convinced that many of our health problems – to be sure, not all of them (that would be horribly naive) – can be traced back to not washing our hands, not coughing where we should, not eating healthy food, and not sleeping properly – really basic health habits.

And to add further insult to injury, it takes the government to tell us what common sense and mother told us to do years ago. I actually do listen to the government; after all, I am one their shareholders. But if I had listened to my mom, and all kids would listen to their mothers, then I repeat that many of our health problems would be in remission.

In addition to the current hysteria of H1N1, I am thinking of heart issues and diabetes, in particular, both brought on, in part, by eating too much junk food. It's not a stretch to see the direct connection between really bad eating habits and a health crisis that is much, much larger than H1N1. (For starters, there are 40,000 deaths attributed to the common flu every year in North America; and there are far more widespread pandemics that are killing us off than H1N1.)

It is in the government's best interest to slow down any health issue with whatever means possible. While health and education, for starters, are essentially family matters, with the deterioration of the family unit as a whole, Big Brother has stepped up and stepped in to do its part of stave off any further damage.

I just lament the fact that most, if not all, of this preventative medicine (literally) should have taken place first at home. It would have saved everyone so much more time, money, and energy.

Just one further comment on my mother knowing best: I'm still not convinced she was right when it came to Cod Liver Oil. Mind you, I probably would have swallowed it if it came with a Mars bar flavour.