Thanks for the history lesson, but...

It’s interesting to learn that saying “GBY” when one sneezes originated in the 6th century – but why the HELL do morons continue to say this 1400 years later?

I’m sick and tired of morons pointlessly (and mindlessly) repeating “God Bless You” after a sneeze. Obviously they don’t believe that I have the plague. They’re just “being polite”.

How come people don’t say similar cutesy and annoying and pointless things when you cough, burp, fart, hiccup?

Okay, there. I’ve vented. Whew.

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Bless you.

Well, “I hope you don’t have a fatal disease and die” is a bit blunt. And “Satan curse you!” is just downright rude. Me, I usually just say “Gesundheit!”, on the grounds that, having taken about 6 years of German in high school and college, I really ought to remember how to say something.

Habit. Inertia. TRADITION.

Why do people say “GRY” at all?

::ducks and runs::

Seems a little excessive to refer to such folks as morons. No one gets hurt. Right? I wonder what sort of world it would be if everything that was “innessential” was eliminated from the culture.

The language takes on / sheds expressions naturally, through use/disuse. People use this expression, and so it stays. As for why, well, I can only speak for myself. I kind of like it when people wish a “blessing” on me. Regardless about how I may be feeling about ( God, existence of ) on that particular day. It’s similar to the way I feel when people pull over, en masse, to let an ambulance go by. It’s just nice.

It’s the law, in that case, though.

Because if they say it enough, it will become the elusive third common word ending in “gry” and we can all call it a night and go home.

At least, I hope so.

I’m only talking about how both make me feel, and so the fact the one is compulsory and the other habitual would only be relevant if it changed the way I felt. It doesn’t. They’re both signs of civility in an increasingly uncivilized world. They only differ in scale.

In the case of the ambulance, it’s necessary to make it a law because there are, sadly, there are people who are either too ignorant/stupid/careless to pull over when an ambulance needs to go by, and who would only do so out by being threatened with a fine. I acknowledge that. Some people need a little nudge.

Of course, I too, at first, pulled over only because it what I was taught to do, because it was the law. But I’ve since come to appreciate the law, the soundness and goodness of it. The world that would have such a law. When all of the cars have pulled over for the ambulance screeching by, I feel as if we’re all being reminded of the day when the ambulance will be coming for us. This diminishes the perceived urgency of whatever I was rushing to before the ambulance appeared. For a moment, we all pause to acknowledge our shared mortality. I admit my perspective on this may be a bit skewed, since I live in Los Angeles, where people drive with such selfishness ( although not so much lately ).

People will say I’m naive for attributing to kindness what is only a respect for law. Fine. I prefer to assume the best about people. So, even if the “God Bless You” is uttered “mindlessly”, I don’t hear it mindlessly.

What do aquatic fowl and diarrhea have to do with this subject?
Makes no sense at all.

That is a good question; the order of bodily emissions that require a blessing. As to farts, I’ve followed the lead of my Grandad, who would loudly proclaim after someone’s obvious sacriledge of air,“GezzzOOONNDDD-HEIT!”. It was all giggles after that, but maybe the offender really needed the dispersal of their sins. Yuk Yuk.

I really prefer to enjoy my sneezes in peace, without some crazy “God bless you”-sniper popping out from around a corner.

What they’re saying is, “OOOooh, I caught you sneezing. My powers of observation are so keen and my reflexes so sharp, that I was able to hurriedly say, ‘God bless you’ before anybody else. I win!”

Maybe I’ll get little trophies made up and hand them out.

bacobit said:

Me, I get a twinge of guilt driving faster down the freeway than the ambulance with it’s lights running. :wink: