Only a few months ago, the media began telling us that the flu was sweeping across the country and threatening to make us all very sick. We have known for a long time that most germs are spread through touching. In reaction to this flu epidemic, someone suggested that we teach children to use their elbow to cover their mouth when they coughed or sneezed rather than their hands and thus, the germs would be caught in a shirt sleeve and not passed through touch!

I am not sure who had this idea.  Perhaps it was a doctor, perhaps a teacher, perhaps a parent,but whoever it was, it was a great idea. In only a matter of weeks children all across the United States were coughing and sneezing into their shirt sleeves!

Then their parents started doing it and now we all have learned to cough andsneeze this new way! In fact I was sitting in church last week and found italmost comical to see people of all ages coughing and sneezing this new way!

Sixty-five and seventy-five year old people who had coughed and sneezed into their hands for their entire lives had, in a matter of weeks, learned a new way to do it!

I find it absolutely fascinating that in only a matter of months we have all learned a new behavior. I can’t help but wonder if we could possibly do this same thing for other behaviors. Do you suppose if we really tried, we could teach our children and ourselves to smile more? Or could weteach our kids and ourselves to be kinder and more patient? Do you think wecould learn to react while driving in compassionate ways rather than with roadrage?

It took us a few weeks to learn to sneeze and cough a new way…I bet we could learn new ways of caring, loving and being compassionate if we tried! And lets not kid ourselves... living in a society filled with anger and lacking compassion will make us much more sick than the flu! Let's learn new ways to do lots of things in addition to a new way of sneezing.