Graffiti the Ghost

Bacteria is your friend.

This article about anti-bacterial soaps, and how they can eventually do us more harm than good, didn't come as much of a surprise. The jist of the article (in case you don't wanna read it), is that anti-bacterial products don't really reduce bacterial infections any more than regular soap, and on top of that, they may actually be helping bacteria to become stronger and more resistant to antibiotics, while meanwhile we're getting weaker and less resistant to bacteria.


Let's face it - bacteria are strong little fuckers. We're not going to beat them. Like Dr. Levy (who is not only the president of the Alliance for Prudent Use of Antibiotics, but also a client) says in the article, "Bacteria are not going to be destroyed. They've seen dinosaurs come and go. They will be happy to see us come and go. Any attempt to sterilize our home is fraught with failure." Of course I'd like to see him convince my mom, the Queen of Clean, of that. But he's right. The better idea is to learn to live with bacteria, in peace and harmony, perhaps sharing a Coke. It's a very American idea to think that bacteria is an enemy which must be defeated, at all costs. Even if it means giving up the best cheese.

Whaa? Ok, so, last winter I was a guest at ChAmy's Tahoe house, which they lease with a bunch of Frenchies. While I was there, they started busting out all this amazing cheese, as frogs are wont to do. They had a veritable shitload of this one awesome cheese because they had been buying out every bit their local cheese shop had in stock, since by the end of the month it would no longer be available for purchase in America. They had even pre-purchased the final shipment the store had ordered from France. Apparently the Bush administration upped the "safety" requirements of imported foods (could this have anything to do with W's anti-France issues?), and this particular cheese fell below those requirements, because as we all know, bacteria is what makes cheese sooo good. The frogs were livid about this. "This is why Americans get sick much more than Europeans," they told us. "You try to avoid all bacteria, so you get weak and any little bacteria that enters your system can make you sick. We eat it every day, so our immune systems get stronger and learn how to cope with it." Granted these frogs were not doctors, but they really did have a point there.

So I was reading about the antibacterial soap thing this morning, and thinking of the frogs and their cheese, and I realized that the soap and the frogs and the cheese are also kind of a metaphor for life. Sometimes we get sucked into the mentality that to be happy, we need to avoid pain. We think, if I can just get enough money and a big enough house and an attractive enough spouse, then I'll be safe, and nothing can hurt me. But nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing can protect you from pain - "life is pain," as Wesley told Princess Buttercup. The better idea is to learn to live with pain, in peace and harmony, perhaps sharing some Coke. Every once in a while, ponder the brevity of human life, the ache of loneliness, the purity of grief. I don't think it's morbid to think of such things - it's part of being human, and makes you focus on what it really means to be alive. Keeping pain close at hand makes you much stronger than trying to shield yourself from it.

I'm not saying we should wallow in pain. That would be like subsisting solely on a diet of dumpster scores and licking the handrails on the 38 Geary. All I'm saying is, don't be afraid to eat the stinky cheese.

posted by stefbot @ 11:09 AM