Since then, I have been paying attention to the reaction of every class whenever someone sneezes. Generally, at least one person will respond; it almost leaves an awkward absence in the air if it’s not said.
My sixth grade teacher used to stop class when someone sneezed and it went unacknowledged, or when people invoked a blessing on the sneezer and the sneezer did not respond with a thank you. This was just rude, she told us.
Has anyone ever stopped and thought about this? How weird this phenomenon is, that we are almost obligated to respond with “Bless you!” or “God bless you!” when someone gets a fuzzy in her nose and her body involuntarily twitches and makes a noise?
Children somehow grow up knowing this. What is even crazier is that children across a multitude of cultures spanning the globe for hundreds upon hundreds of years have grown up knowing this. Responses vary from culture to culture. Some responses send wishes for the sneezer’s health or fortune, others for safety and still others praise for Allah or God. There are plenty of legends and explanations as to how the phrase came about, but I don’t think it really matters at this point. What I think is fascinating is that we still do it, and we likely will still be doing it for centuries to come.
Pondering all of this made me start to think about and notice other societal idiosyncrasies.
Take people in “the elevator,” for instance. It does not matter which elevator; elevator behavior is the same in all of them. You’re the only person on board…cruising on up…the door opens…someone else steps into the box…instinctively, you step to the other side of the box…someone else steps on…everyone shifts. People just do it.
My personal favorite is the dance that ensues on the street when two people headed in opposite directions toward each other each try to go the same way along the path, and then each try to go the other way. Almost powerlessly, this continues until each party chuckles uncomfortably and finally manages to sidestep the other.
We have these responses as human beings. Whether by natural instinct or instinct formed through social conditioning, every one of us seems to share these reactions. And that is simply fascinating.
Last year, I took a seminar about labyrinths. What was most intriguing to me about labyrinths is that almost every human culture invented some form of the labyrinth at around the same time, despite the fact that there was no means of communication or even a knowledge that there were other cultures at that time. When I walk the path of a labyrinth, I participate in an intrinsically human experience.
In my ethics class, we are trying to determine what it is that connects us as humans. Some philosophers say human nature, some say the experience of pleasure, some say rationality. We can probably all agree with the existentialists that we are all at least connected by our common human condition of existence.
I have gotten rather philosophical here, and who knows if anyone is still reading? There really is not much more of a point I am trying to make other than the fact that this question of human connectivity is ever before us, evident through our collective and instinctual responses, and thinking about it fills me with wonder. Therefore, I think you should try it, too, if you have not already.
One myth regarding how the phrase “Bless you” came into being is that it was believed that the heart stopped beating when a person sneezed, and this response was meant to encourage the sneezer’s heart to continue beating.
I like to look at “Bless you” like this – as an affirmation of the human person who sneezed, and as a recognition that those around this person are truly happy he or she is alive.
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