To the person sitting next to me on the 5-hour flight from Las Vegas to Newark, I just wanted to clarify something. I didn't want you to feel bad that your coughing and sneezing and Niagara Falls-like runny nose was bothering me, it's just that I carry surgical masks with me whenever I travel just in case a situation like this one should arise, and so under the circumstances - I was just being cautious. You see, I have an immuno-deficiency disease and it's something I live with.
- If I had arthritis and popped a pain pill - you wouldn't writhe in agonizing dissatisfaction.
- If I had an astigmatism and slipped on my glasses - you wouldn't look twice at that action.
- If I had asthma and took a puff or two off of my inhaler - you wouldn't huff or harumph in disapproval.
Under those similar and seemingly innocuous health circumstances there would be no notice of the intervention. And so too here. I slipped on my mask out of an abundance of caution (admittedly an unusual sight, whose optics tends to scare people - ala; Typhoid Mary). But the reality is that if I get a cold (your cold, thank you), it takes me longer to rebound; a generally uncomfortable and unfun situation.
Why do I care what you think - I kinda don't. I know you didn't plan to get a cold (ie: didn't go outside in the cold weather with wet hair in defiance of everyone's grandmother's precautions). And I know that you weren't aware that you would be sitting on a plane (the over-sized version of a human petri dish) next to the guy with Multiple Myeloma. And I suspect that you were trying your best to keep your volcano of germs contained within the limited confines of your seat area. So though it's not you, it's me - it really is about you, and how I am doing what I can proactively to not get sick like you. I hope you can understand.
