To your health!

[HomeschoolDad]

Been thinking recently, with everything that’s been going on ---- past generations made much of wishing one another good health, drinking to one’s health, and so on. For many reasons, people feared getting sick more back then — there was far more to get sick from, and not nearly as many ways to treat the illness once someone fell sick. People wrapped up like mummies compared to today, when they went out in the weather — “you’ll catch your death”.

I wonder if we might get back to wishing one another good health, and actually meaning it explicitly, as opposed to its being a kind of archaic formality. For the first time in a long time, the mass of people really have something to fear from a health standpoint.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

I wonder if we might get back to wishing one another good health, and actually meaning it explicitly

The virus will burn out too quickly. We’ll be back to our normal routines before anyone actually makes a significant change in their attitude.

 

[Irishmom2]

I wonder if we might get back to wishing one another good health, and actually meaning it explicitly,

Well, first of all, why do you assume that people don’t really mean it?

And second, wishing doesn’t make things happen, or keep them from happening.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

HomeschoolDad:

I wonder if we might get back to wishing one another good health, and actually meaning it explicitly,

Well, first of all, why do you assume that people don’t really mean it?

And second, wishing doesn’t make things happen, or keep them from happening.

Because, over the years, it has morphed into more of a slightly archaic formality. Nobody, at least in modern culture, up until now has seriously questioned an already-well person being able to remain in good health. Cancer and “Western diseases” (T2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, etc.) aside, not many people in modern society are all that sick, nor do they live in fear of it. In times past, you had to fear such things as typhoid, smallpox, “the grippe”, water- and food-borne illnesses, and so on. Even in Poland, the traditional culture with which I am most familiar, people are afraid of getting too cold, of getting wet, being sensitive to low air pressure, there is this old wives’ tale about not sitting with your posterior directly on the ground, things like that. There is a whole culture around the concept of “not getting sick”. It’s not for nothing that they toast with the wish of zdrowia! — good health to you!