Op-Ed: How to sing 'Happy Birthday' during an epidemic (via latimesopinion)
I was already a hand washer. Ever since I became a parent 25 years ago, I’ve cleaned my hands with soap and water several times a day. As anyone who has spent time around kids will tell you, they can be not only messy but also dirty, and they often get one another sick. A regular regimen at the sink can go a long way toward self-protection.
And hand washing, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as Gavin Newsom and even Mike Pence, keeps saying, may help us to keep it like that. The hard part has to do with the duration. “Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds,” the CDC website admonishes. “Need a timer? Hum the ‘Happy Birthday’ song from beginning to end twice.
That’s the way we do “Happy Birthday” in my family. I’ve used the line so many times, over so many years and birthdays, that without it, the ritual feels incomplete. Its emergence during my hand-washing routine is a reminder that humans adapt to extreme situations by normalizing the unknown. Why not sing the song, in other words, the way I really sing the song?These days, of course, those habitual words have particular resonance.
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