I grew up with a "Cover your mouth!" whenever I sneezed or coughed. Later, it evolved to "Cover your mouth with the back of your hand!" Now, it's "Cover your mouth by shoving it into the crook of your elbow like you're dabbing!" Dabbing seems to have its roots in the Atlanta hip-hop scene and later popularized NFL's Cam Newton. Must be a lot of sneezing and coughing going on there.
Speaking of roots . . .
Having German roots, the automatic response to a sneeze was "Gesundheit!" which simply means something like "healthiness" (Gesund = health. Heit = iness. Okay, actually state) or "good health."
Now, more than not, I hear "God Bless you" or "Bless you." Other cultures have their own sneeze responses. The Greeks wish each other "long life." People in Arabic countries say "God be praised."
Others are "Live well," "Be Healthy," and in China when a child sneezes "May you live 100 years."
Why did people start wishing each other "good health" upon sneezing? According to several sources, including the book An Uncommon History of Common Things, "It was mainly because in ancient times people thought that the force of a sneeze could propel a person's soul right out the body. By uttering kind of incantation or invocation, bystanders believed they could stop evil spirits from taking the sneezer's soul, as well as protect against spirits entering the body."
So, this cold and flu season, it's okay to say "Gesundheit!" or "Bless you" when someone sneezes -- even if they're looking as if they're dabbing while doing it. But, when you see someone dabbing to be dabbing, perhaps the better response would be, "Bless his heart!" That's what my Granny Kuhn used to say when she saw someone doing something ignorant. Sort of a passive-aggressive way of insulting someone.
I don't know if "Bless his or her heart" will stop evil dabbing spirits from taking the dabber's soul. I'm thinking our society needs some sort of dabbing exorcism.
Gesundheit!
Carpe Diem Life
David Kuhn
CarpeDiem-Life.com
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