Soap for the Best

After spending years trying to persuade people with whom you live to routinely wash their hands, maybe it's time to throw in the towel.

Never mind that diseases and unspeakable disorders caused by unclean hands kill a child nearly every 15 seconds, you are fighting dirty and you will lose, because getting some people into a soap habit is surprisingly difficult given some people are undaunted by visible filth and invisible germs.

For example, take your soiled child--the one who's nearly a legal adult. Have you noticed how he considers his hands to be clean after holding them under tepid tap water for up to three seconds, before wiping them on his jeans?

You've tried everything from putting photos of magnified germs on the refrigerator to putting nice-smelling containers of antibacterial soap at every sink, to blaming all illnesses, including lung cancer and mental ones, on a lack of personal hygiene. And, still, your child, after taking out the trash, will pick up food and start eating without anything resembling handwashing. Then, he or she will neither blink nor gag when you point out the smudge of something on his fingers

You tried, and God knows it. And you know Godliness, next to cleanliness, is a vital yet slippery quest. So anyone who's determined to join an initiative for hand-washing with soap, be my guest. Seriously, you'd be welcome in my home if hygiene is that important to you.