An old roommate told me once that we should put the toilet seat cover down because she read that when a toilet is flushed, bacteria shoots up nearly 9 feet and goes back down exposing the entire bathroom to those dirty dirty organisms.

I believed her and we kept the cover down. But then I was told that by keeping the cover down, germs can incubate due to lack of air circulation.

And I thought I read somewhere that the toilet water was cleaner than other water.

I often come across articles where I learn that I should not put my lemon in restaurants into water. Or that I should never open the bathroom with my hands because the majority of people don’t wash their hands.

Nowadays, whenever we walk into a store, I come across a canister of antibacterial wipes or liquid-free wash.

Are we becoming a nation that is fearful of germs? Why are we so obsessed with being clean? Are we becoming irrational?

Sometimes, I am reluctant to open doors, kicking it open with my feet.

How about the ATM machine? What if someone dirty touched it with fingers?

And public transit? There are so many people I know who don’t board public transit because they think it’s smelly and dirty…and who knows what else.

Or my obsession of never letting any of my public clothes touch my bed unless they have been through the wash. Someone asked me why I was reluctant to sit on my bed and I responded that I sat wearing the same jeans while riding the BART…and who knows what I picked up?!

Even worse, I feel awkward sitting in a seat that still has warmth in it. Perhaps it’s that I want to feel that the seat is cold to the touch…and thus clean. That the previous person left germs behind.

But what does the rest of the world do? Do they really clean themselves that much?

So a recent article said:
The worst place to set fruit before washing it: the kitchen sink
Of all the household germ depots, the kitchen sink sees the most bacterial traffic — even more than the toilet, says Kelly Reynolds, PhD, a professor and environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona. If the perfect berry drops while you’re washing it, pop it in the trash — not your mouth.

Chris responded in his merry way:
See, I picture it this way. Organisms can only travel so fast. If I
drop my berry in the sink, the germs have to realize the goodness that
has arrived, and change their course of direction to get on its berry
goodness. If I am quick enough, I can just pull the berry away before
any germs can realize it’s even there. Then I eat berry and
go yay!