A chat with a neighbor, as our kids are playing together outside:
Neighbor: So 5yrOldKid is feeling better today
Me: Really? What was the matter with him?
Neighbor: He had a really high fever. He was sweating badly all night, at one point I walked in his room and I could actually feel the room was stuffy because he was burning up.
Me: Last night?
Neighbor: Yes, actually early this morning. He felt better and I didn’t want to keep him inside. 1yrOldKid (in a stroller in front of her) is starting to run a temp, I should probably have him inside, but I have to be out here with the other two.
Me: (crickets)
WTF? How does she think her kids got sick, did a virus just drop from the sky and afflict them? No, they were exposed to some other kid with a virus, and now she is exposing my kids to the virus. I brought them inside and had them wash up, but they played for a half hour before this revelation of their playmates’ sickness.
I’m just totally shocked that some sort of medieval style plague hasn’t wiped our stupid species from the planet, because even though we have knowledge of why people get sick, we don’t have the common sense cognitive capability to associate this knowledge personally into our own lives and refrain from engaging in behavior that makes other people sick. Exasperating, exhausting, confounding.
Sensus Communis 