Remedies

Word of the day: misqueme, meaning: to displease (courtesy of savethewords.org)

I'm just waiting for the day when - just like what happened merely seconds ago to me while I sit here in my school's computer lab - I sneeze close to ten times in a row, somebody next to me repeatedly smears out the phrase "bless you," I thank them none, and they get immensely misquemed for it. I don't doubt that it has happened already, and perhaps taken aback a few people, mentally. I consciously neglect the thanking though. I never remember being a person who, by instinct, would say "bless you" to anybody who sneezed, though I know I've used the phrase many many times. Well...when I was a little kid, I actually thought people were saying "blesh you" for close to three years or something. I digress, though I refrain from thanking anybody consciously, it's slowly merging into my subconscious, my selective hearing if you will, to not thank people any time they say this. Do you have the power to bless me? Sure, maybe the implications of the statement is actually, "may God bless you," but do you even know if I've accepted your god as somebody I want blessing me? Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Do you care? Are you an imposer? Do you even know the origins of that statement, or why the hell people say it?

From my knowledge, without looking anything up, I believe it still stands that the phrase "bless you" came from the superstition that every time you sneezed, you were letting your soul out of your body. Hey, maybe that was a really legitimate rationality back then, but does our culture really believe this now?

Of course we don't. We know damn well that what people call a "soul" does not escape us because of a mere bodily function. So why is it still said? You don't hear anybody say "excuse you" because it has some sort of negative tone to it or something, like it sounds rude. But wouldn't it be way more correct to say? Maybe if somebody said "excuse you" every time I sneezed, I'd make the effort to say "thank you" ten times in a row. But is it really worth my time to thank you for your persistent ignorance and/or unestablished right to push your religiously-oriented statements upon me? Perhaps this may sound a bit pretentious, but I don't care how much or how little effort it takes for you to say "bless you" every time I sneeze. Sure, it's just a statement. Some people just do it by reaction, and it's no big deal, but I'm sure as hell not going to thank anybody for it.