Japanese Food For Thought

I was nervous in church on Sunday.

Our church does that "Shake hands and greet your neighbor" after the first song thing.

I dislike the "Shake hands and greet your neighbor" after the first song thing.

I like my church. I like my neighbors sitting in the chairs around me. Greeting is cool. But for the love of God do we have to shake hands? Who came up with that concept anyway? I've mentioned before that germs generally freak me out. I have bottles of hand sanitizer in my car, in my purse and on my kitchen counter. My kids pretty much know that anytime we get in the car after we've been in a store they have to have a shot of the sanitizer. On their hands. Guess I should use a word other than shot. We've received a letter from Luke's preschool that someone there was diagnosed with swine flu (not in his class). The flu (not sure if it is the swine version or not) has been going around like crazy here. So why invite anyone to willingly share their possible germs by shaking hands with 10 other people? When I think about the mathematically probability of the transference of germs in that two minute Shake and Greet session, my head wants to explode.

I have a suggestion.

Could we please just be like Japanese people for the next 6 months?

We could just smile and bow politely to one another when we need to greet someone whether it be at church or at the grocery store. No touching has to occur. Ever.

Or we could go back to the way it was in the 50's when men tipped their hats and ladies curtsied (no clue how to spell that - had to look it up).

I would be ok with that too.

Oh, and by the way, my church must have sensed my paranoia because they didn't do the "shake hands and greet your neighbor" after the first song thing on Sunday. Skipped right over it and went right into the next song. Props to our new worship leader. I'm hoping this is a new trend.