These are parlous times. What
does that mean? One might gather from the apparent root of the word parlous
that it derives from the French parler but according to etymology
scholars that would be a mistake. Parler is said to derive from parabola
or parabola when one refers to speech but parlous truly means perilous
or dangerous and has its own separate line of ancestry.
So these are dangerous times no
matter how you slice it. Sanitation is of the utmost importance and more than a
little worrisome for those who are vulnerable and those who love them. Thank
goodness pets are not afflicted. I shudder to think what the consequence might
be if they were.
Anyhoo, the recipe for good sanitation
is as old as Moses. Really. I don’t cite the Bible very often but it is
authoritative about the proper way to maintain healthy conditions both in and
out of the kitchen. Moses, the first public health sanitarian, delivered more
than moral guidance for human conduct. Hygiene in spirit was meant to accompany
hygiene in practical quotidian duties. One notes that this could get a little
severe when men, women and child prisoners were summarily executed to prevent
the spread of disease, though virgins were spared in a pragmatic demonstration
of moderation.
The good old books of Leviticus
and Deuteronomy lay out a pretty comprehensive list of allowable animal food on
the basis of cleanliness as well as the procedures for preparation and storage
in order to ensure healthy living. That’s basic sanitation but there were also
prescriptions for waste management and water protection which makes a pretty
good case for public health as a priority. Coming out of the desert there
needed to be some guiding principles for what might otherwise have turned into
an unruly and unclean mob. Timing is everything.
In response to the arrival of the
medieval plague in Italy, the state mandated quarantine, a forty day
sequestration. Today we have a pretty good idea how to cope with a pandemic
without the pandemonium, but people are people and so the inevitable strays
will require convincing if not corralling. Luckily we have extremely wide and
instant communication so that, if we are able to filter out the misleading and patently
false junky bits, we’ll be okay at the other end of this episode.
Every Irish household knows that
shoes on a table bring bad luck. Isn’t this a sensible extension of the Biblical
health laws? That means when you bring home your grocery bag whose bottom has
rested on the floor in the supermarket you ought to remember not to place it on
any food preparation surface. That would be tantamount to walking on the
counter! That’s simple common sense and just one example of preventive hygiene,
praise Moses!
Stay healthy. Stay aware. Stay in
attendance of the ones you love.
With hugs,
Celeste
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