Halt the Disease!

God Bless You!  "Several possible origins are commonly given. The practice of blessing someone who sneezes, dating as far back as at least AD 77, however, is far older than most specific explanations can account for.[1]

One explanation holds that the custom originally began as an actual blessing. Gregory I became Pope in AD 590 as an outbreak of the bubonic plague was reaching Rome. In hopes of fighting off the disease, he ordered unending prayer and parades of chanters through the streets. At the time, sneezing was thought to be an early symptom of the plague. The blessing ("God bless you!") became a common effort to halt the disease."

It appears the Rudeness Plague has taken over for the Black Plague more than 1,000 years later.  Actually there's a lot of plagues in Rome, NY so maybe there's some kind of ancient connection — or better yet a curse!  I love curses!  I touched upon this subject of Bless You in my Thursday blog.  People who don't give the common courtesy of the "bless you" when someone sneezes.  We suffer this plague, along with several others, at the workplace.   But today, I will make it more feasible and concentrate on the one.  Maybe it's because we've wrapped ourselves up into a world of complete political correctness.  We're so overwhelmed by the concern that we might offend a group, so perhaps some people believe they shouldn't bless anyone because then others will think they identify with some kind of religious denomination or cult other than loving the deity of thyself.  But did you ever think that those who are saying it are just trying to be nice — trying to "halt the disease?"  And maybe I don't want your disease!  Ever think of that?  And maybe I'm just thinkin', Gees hope you don't croak man!  If bless you was known as the all-kooties killer, then maybe you'd all be able to look at that simple phrase from a different perspective.  Halt the Disease — I'm thinking of naming my new band that.  It's kind of catchy.  Oops, no pun intended.  If bless you is "Halt the Disease" then maybe I should go around blessing complete assholes.  If someone decides to drive up so close to my bumper that they can smell my butt, quite the commodity in Rome I must say, then instead of flipping the bird maybe I should roll down my window and scream, "BLESS YOU!"  Bless you could be the new "Poof Be Gone" for evil.  Poof be gone was a common phrase used amongst myself and my galfriends otherwise known as chicks or chicas, in high school.  I still use chicas, because I can.  They were my brood, or maybe in my case it would be more proper to say "Brooda?"  Anyway, if someone got in our face and was talking nonsense or told us something we didn't want to hear, or we just plain wished to ignore them, we'd place our fore and middle finger against our thumb, raise the arm and make a spell-casting motion and proclaim, "Poof be gone with you!!"  I wish I still used that today.  Maybe I should resurrect it.  I could use it on SOOOOO many people.  In case you're not following me and you're a geek such as I, the Poof Be Gone can largely be compared to the Vadar.  Bring Luke Skywalker to me alive or die VRRRRRRRRR!  Stop the Assholes!   You don't need the Dark Side or the Vulcan Neck Grip when there's BLESS YOU!  You know I understand if there's a person who goes off on a sneezing spree that you might get tired of saying bless you all the time.  I can understand that.  You shouldn't have to repeat yourself like 50 times in one morning.  I'm not expecting that or looking for it.  Just give the occasional reply or say, "This one was a token good for 60 more blows!"  Just be nice and courteous.  Seriously, what did your mommies teach you anyway? You know better!  Halt the Disease of DISRESPECT! GOD BLESS US EVERY ONE FOR WHAT HAS THIS WORLD COME TO?!!!!! Vadar out. VRRRRRRRR!!!!