Do You "Bless" People when They Sneeze?
When I sneeze, it is absolutely nobody else's business-unless I sneeze on them. Which I don't. I try to make my sneezes as discreet as possible. I'm a quiet sneezer; I always cover my mouth and look away to hide it. I don't want someone blessing me, because I don't want to then be under the social expectation of connecting with some stranger about something that just happened to my body. Like I said, it's none of their business.
When I'm in public or at the gym or wherever, I'm not always in the mood to connect with a stranger, and just because I sneeze, this doesn't mean I'm inviting strangers to comment to me. So when I sneeze, and someone says, "Bless you," I pretend I didn't hear them.
I once worked with mentally retarded adults as a job coach. One of the clients was a 24-year-old named David. The other job coach one day sneezed. David was clear down the corridor in the hospital where he was learning janitorial skills. He yelled, from all the way down the corridor, "Bless you!" The other job coach promptly pointed out how inappropriate that was. And he was right. It was inappropriate, and...it's something that many "normal" people do all the time!
Like Theresa, a woman who worked in the office I used to work in before I figured out how to make a living writing out of my home. One day I sneezed. I kept on working like nothing happened. But she started turning around, wondering who had sneezed. I kept my eyes on my computer, wondering when she was going to give up.
"Who sneezed?" She asked. "I want to bless them." Nobody seemed to know it had been me. I continued working, wondering why Theresa was letting something like this interrupt her work. "Who just sneezed?" She asked again. What a dope. She never found out, of course.
Do people think they are so special that they can "bless" someone? Do they think they have divine attributes? Notice that "God bless you" often becomes just a "Bless you." Nobody can bless me. Nobody has that power.
And I don't need to be blessed just because I sneeze. When an person chokes on food, that's when it's time to say "God bless you." They really need it. Or when a person stubs a toe or bangs a knee into a piece of furniture, that's when you should "bless" someone. Or if a person erupts into a coughing spell. But a sneeze?
Some people enjoy the attention that their sneezes generate. I've learned that the loudness of a person's sneeze is directly proportional to the number of people within earshot! This is so true! A person will bellow out a 120-decibel sneeze if there's a lot of people around. But if this clown is the only person in the room, his sneeze won't be nearly as loud. People who create eardrum-splitting sneezes for attention are very immature and childish, not the kind of person I want to hang around. They are rude.
If I can keep my sneezes subdued, why can't other people? Of course, a quiet sneeze won't guarantee no attention, such as in the case of Theresa the Sneeze Warden. Bottom line is this: When a person sneezes, it's none of your business-unless he or she is your child-in which case, you want to be sure he's not coming down with a viral infection. But if anyone else sneezes, can't you just ignore it?
Published by Jillita Horton
Freelance writer for fitness print magazines and fitness Web sites; ghost writer for fitness Web sites View profile
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7 Comments
Post a CommentI realize this article is old but I happened upon it while I was searching if it was appropriate to "bless" strangers when they sneeze. All I can say to the author of this tripe is wow girl, you are definitely full of anger and if I may be so bold to say you come across a wee bit ignorant as well. I mean, "retarded people?" and how dare they acknowledge your sneezes? Were you beaten as a child for sneezing out loud? You need to get a grip on yourself. I can only hope that you've matured since the publishing of this piece, if not, well then I guess its a good thing you are working from home and the rest of us are safe from your angry persona.
Well, and I think it's rather stupid to be so pissed about what people say when you sneeze. You just overestimate your own importance, thinking it's excessive attention to you and your sneezing :)
Relax, people are just being polite in a way they are used to be. Even if you don't agree it's a good way, it's not a reason to be pissed at them. Because what matters is that they have good and friendly motivation, and not what they exactly say, and how they react. And ignoring them, instead of polite "Thanks" - that's rude.
I could not care about what you think about sneezing but who the hell do you think you are and what century do you think this is... retarded people!! 'normal'people.. People with that a mental challenged are ten times the person you will ever be!!!!! I hope everyday someone say bless you until it sends you RETARDED!!!!!
Yeah the person that wrote this story is really rude.
I do not want to be obligated to say Bless you to every sneezer. I often wonder how far do I have to be from someone to exempt me from giving them a bless you.
On the other hand, I am a beliver in Christ. Therefore, I believe that we all need blessing. I'm just not sure that God would see fit for us to be blessed or offer blessings every time someone sneezes. I belive God might prefer the blessings to flow for other reasons. Perhaps when we enter our jobs in the morning, the others should greet us with a 'good morning, and may God bless you.'
For me, I want everything I touch to be blessed. I want my children to be blessed and my great, great grandchildren to be blessed.
I want the blessings to be so genuine, that I will be protected from the world by the blessings God has provided.
I'm just not so sure that light weight wishes of blessing for the sheer purpose of sneezing is what I want to give nor receive.
Perhaps if it were not just a cliche, or knee jerk reaction I'd appr
Well, wow. How rude is right. I wish I would have just ignored your story. This is what is wrong with some people that live in our world today. You can't even accept a nice gesture from your neighbor without telling them to mind their own business.
I agree, this "bless you" concept derived from a superstitious belief that upon sneezing a person's heart might suddenly stop pumping, therefore it was necessary to bless the individual to arrest that possibility.
What I do is, immidiately after a sneeze I say, "excuse me" people usually ask me "why?" and I reply: "For letting out all those germs in the air" and I continue about my business. Like yourself, I never acknoledge a sneeze.