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Saturday, March 14, 2020

Cleanliness And Disease. Dirt And Social Opprobrium

“The white buffalo protects us from evil spirits and brings good fortune in the harvest, but it’s almost impossible to keep clean.”

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50 years ago, while kicking around Central and South America, a New World koan took shape in my mind: 
"How often do you sweep a dirt floor before it's clean?"

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Notably, The Filthy Rich are The Squeaky Clean.

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Some scholars have argued that the linchpin reason for Yeshua's crucifixion was his disregard for Jewish purificatory rites coupled with indifference to cleanliness norms. 

It is one thing to await The Messiah - quite another when The Messiah does not wash his hands before eating.

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During sister Janet's recent Easter visit, she reminded me that we were both "Polio Pioneers," young people who received Jonas Salk's experimental vaccine. She also reminded me that when neighborhood children were afflicted with polio, adults in the community would "whisper" that the victim's family was "too clean."

"Dirt And Disease: Polio Before FDR"
New England Journal Of Medicine
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199303043280923

Too Much Hygiene Is Making Us Sick

"His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean."
Lay, Lady, Lay
Bob Dylan

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