Imagine this scene. You are at work, sitting in a meeting, surrounded by your colleagues. Perhaps your boss is there, or a client, or some other VIPs. No matter: the stakes are high in this very important discussion. Suddenly, the guy sitting next to you sneezes.
"Achoo!"
Almost reflexively, you hear this disjointed chorus from people around the table:
"Bless you!"
Maybe only one person will say it. Maybe it will be two. Maybe even three (or more!) people will feel a reflexive compulsion to lay their blessings on this man who had foreign particles irritating the nasal mucosa. And now your meeting has almost certainly been highjacked by the commotion.
We have all been witnesses to this absurdity. In classrooms, dinners, meetings, sporting events, theatre, live television — all have been disrupted by the "call and response" nonsense of the sneeze and "bless you!"
How often has this happened to you? Have you ever thought to ask why it had to happen? No one has ever been able to give me a satisfying answer when I ask why they do this. "Because it's polite," is the common refrain.
But why is it polite?
If it is so polite, why don't we have an equally polite colloquialism for the cough or flatulation?
Frankly, I think it is more impolite to disrupt with a chorus of bless yous. The sneeze is an involuntary reflex which cannot be avoided. It can be disruptive on its own, but it passes in less than a second. Yelling "bless you!" across conference room or dinner is unnecessarily disruptive and rude.
As best as my research can tell me, no one is certain of the origin of this practice. Even the repository of all human knowledge is stumped.
Take the pledge: end the use of "bless you"! The world would be better off without it. Feel free to bless others for any other reason, religious or not but lets end the practice for sneezing. It is disruptive, it is unnecessary, and it is really weird.
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