Living in a Bubble

Can you be too safe?

Quoting from Gladys McGarey may lose a lot without the context of her entire book. Gladys is a 102 year old doctor that just published a book (“The Well-Lived Life”) which I recommend reading. Her warmth and practical approach comes through very nicely in her writing.

I’d like to quote a bit of her writing to talk about it.

Context: Carl is Gladys’ son. Harry’s mother worked in a hospital and tried to protect him from all germs (even having him wear gloves while playing).

“She asked me, “Why is it that Carl is only rarely sick but Harry comes to see you in the clinic so often? I’m so careful with him!””

“I laughed and explained that Carl likely had a stronger immune system. I exposed him to the world, and he was more resilient for it.”

Note: This image was generated with “Stable Diffusion”. I mark my “ai” photos with “AI Fake” so that people realize this is not an actual photo but a computer generated photo.

“We were born in a world full of people because we’re meant to be around people, with all the messiness that entails.”

“We often don’t interact with one another because we don’t want to get our hands dirty. We don’t want to deal with what we perceive to be others’ deficits. We want to protect ourselves so we can’t be disappointed. But in the process, we miss out on life.”

“The advent of modern conveniences has made this easier. We have essentially sterilized our lives of the discomfort of “needing” one another. Today, if we are sufficiently economically comfortable, we’ve set up the entire world so we don’t have to ask anyone for anything. Apps, instead of neighbors, help us pick up our car from the mechanic … We’re constructing a community-for-hire.”

“Gone are the days of borrowing a cup of sugar, let alone raising a barn with neighbors.”

There are two main points here.

First is that allowing germ theory to cause you to be afraid of getting sick actually backfires on you. Let yourself be exposed to all the dirt and germs of the world. Your body will adapt and after a few initial illnesses you’ll be more robust and healthier (of course you also need to eat healthy and stay physically active).

The second point is that while our modern conveniences give us great independence and convenience, they have also isolated us from our neighbors and fellow humans. We live in a much more lonely world in many ways now. Are we stronger because we are independent? Or are we weaker because we actually shifted our dependence onto governments and corporations, rather than other humans?