The Forgotten Fingertips

The other evening, I asked my husband to humour me in mime. Intrigued to be on stage, he paused the TV news.  “Ok. What’s up?” he asked.

“You are entering a store and are greeted by the sanitizing dispenser. What do you do?”

He mimes pressing the pump, receiving the imaginary glop onto the palm of one hand, and then proceeds the cleansing hand dance, vigorously rubbing the palms together, round and round, over and up and down. He then sits back and grins with satisfaction, “I’m sanitized.”

I smiled. " An almost perfect demo, but you forgot the most important parts. Your fingertips.”

He grimaced. “You mean, I should have done this?”

He then began to embrace the 8-finger mamba, squishing and rubbing fingertips against finger joints, fully ensconcing the tips and nails in a thorough cleaning ritual, finalizing in a thumb rub on each palm.

"Eureka! You pass.”

But most of us do not pass this test.  Think back when you last sanitized using the squirt pump. Your palms received the primary attention. Then you rubbed the top of your hands and slightly up into the wrist area but never directly onto THE FINGERTIPS?  

Fingertip cleansing requires a concentrated attention, training.

I watched (behind my mask) over 10 people enter a Canadian Tire store the other day, robotically squirting the required sanitation.  Each commenced the palm rub.  But not one person attacked the fingertips properly.

Most of us have not been taught to remember the fingertips. 

The fingertips are our scratchers, itchers, hair sorters, eye rubbers. We think with our fingertips as we tap our checks, our mouths.   We touch our eyes, nose, mouth, sometimes well over 300 times a day.  While our fingers function beautifully in this manner, they are also the transmitters of the unwanted, colds, flu, viruses.

Our face touching is done unconsciously. When you don a pair of gloves the face touching will become obvious to you. When wearing a mask, it will become obvious too.  We must try not to touch our face masked or not. But to be on the safe side, sanitize.

Watch a health care worker scrub their hands. They do clutch their fingertips together as part of their 20 second ritual.  

Thank you front liners for reminding us to REMEMBER OUR FINGERTIPS.

While I dislike the commercial sanitizers, because of the chemical harshness on the skin, I realize the necessity and I squirt along with everyone else when I venture out into the public.  When at home I clean well with good old fashion soap and water.  Homemade soap is best. especially with pure and natural ingredients.