Bless you!
I am standing at the passport control office of Zurich Airport in a line that is longer than line to go up Magic Mountain at Disney Resort. Suddenly, I hear a sound of sneeze emanating a good 20-30 meters ahead of me. Then I hear "Bless You" behind me. The sneezer sneezes again, and the gentle person behind me pronounces a blessing again!
I am baffled. The sneeze originated a few meters away from us and most likely the poor sneezer did not hear the blessing and is therefore not the beneficiary of the benevolent thought. The only people who heard the blessing were me and a few people around me.
What is my responsibility in this? Am I supposed to communicate the blessing to the sneezer? If I don't, do I become the recipient of the blessing? If I were to see a person accidentally dropping a dollar bill on the street, I would most certainly try to return the money, for not doing so would be robbing. In this case I did not approach the sneezer and let him know of the blessing. So, am I robbing the sneezer now?
Such important existential questions!
But wait, a sneeze is our body's response to some irritation in the nasal passage, just like a cough is a response to the tickle in the throat and an itch is a response to irritation on the skin. So what makes a sneeze so special that it demands immediate bestowing of a blessing? How did this tradition even start, you ask?
I was curious as well and a cursory search on internet instantly revealed that there is no consensus on this weighty question. Some in the western world say that, at the time of bubonic plague, Pope Gregory 1 suggested blessing a person sneezing so that they may be protected by the blessing. Others say that the tradition started in response to the superstition that our soul leaves our body when we sneeze. What ever the reason, it is well documented that today we have neither the bubonic plague epidemic nor does our soul become vulnerable when we sneeze. What we have is an epidemic of sneeze-blessing, sneeze-blessing, sneeze-blessing.
In East Asia, where I hail from, we don't necessarily bless a sneeze. However, a sneeze does immediately send moms and sisters into a Super Woman mode, as if a sneeze is the first step towards pneumonia and a certain death. My mother would turn into a medicine woman and would immediately start concocting kadha - a bitter herbal potion comprising of Indian basil, black pepper, ginger and cloves, that looks as dreadful as it tastes. Although I would have preferred a benign blessing to the bitter kadha, not once did receive a blessing from any one in my large extended family both on maternal side and paternal side.
But let's get back to the Western world which is where I now reside. Given the irrelevance of the reason for the blessing following sneezing, the big question is, should we stop the tradition or start a new one, of blessing all of body's irritations? Both are rather difficult choices and not one to, you guessed it right, not one to sneeze at.
Perhaps I should ask Jiya, my ten year old guide in all matters social. Ever since our time in Dallas, Jiya has been blessing my sneezes with a Texas style "GOD BLESS YA"!
Or perhaps not. We are entering a flu season and if she started blessing every cough, sniffle and sneeze, none of us will have time to do anything else.
And oh, if you happen to sneeze while reading this silly yarn, "May God Bless Ya".
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