I’ve become Melvin Udall

If you remember the 1997 movie, As Good As It Gets, you might remember who Melvin Udall is.  He is an OCD  misanthropic author, played by Jack Nicholson.  Melvin had several compulsive behaviors in the movie including excessive hand washing.

I’ve always been a bit of a hand washer. This habit is partly for good reasons, and partly because of some kink in a neuron somewhere in my cranium.

One reason I wash my hands frequently is that I really am not a big fan of shaking hands.  I do it because is a social expectation and would be rude bordering on offensive to not do so.  Something that I have always found troubling are meets and greets or cocktails and h’orderves at weddings between the service and dinner.  Here you have finger food and people interacting, frequently with the shaking of hands.  I remember when my father passed away we delayed the funeral for a couple days to allow out of town relatives time to come to town.  It was more or less like sitting Shiva for five days.  There was a constant stream of folks through my mother’s house.  Of course, we were expected to greet them and interact with them all.  I found myself sneaking off the bathroom so often to wash my hands that they actually became a little raw.

Another possible reason is that I have had graduate level microbiology.  The result of which, while not making me a paranoid germaphobe, has made me appreciate the power of all those wee organisms that we cannot see.  While our bodies have evolved to fight them, it seems to a war of constant escalation.

In another life, in another universe, a long, long time ago I was a County Sanitarian aka Health Inspector.  One of my duties was to give what was termed “food schools” at restaurants. And no I was not teaching folks how to cook or about nutrition, but basic sanitation.  One “chapter” was on hand washing.  First chore was to teach them the importance of hand washing and why they needed to do it.  Second was to teach them how to  adequately wash their hands.  It always struck me as little strange that I should have to teach this to what was mostly adults and teenagers, but it was definitely needed.

I remember an article I came across at the time about men washing their hands in public restrooms.  I can’t find the article and I do not remember the exact percentages, but the essence of the article was that if the men thought someone was watching they were more likely to wash their hands.  When they thought they were alone the percentage was around 15% for number 1 and slightly higher for numero dos.   The percentages went up several multiples if there was another person in the restroom. I also found it amusing that someone was hiding in a public restroom watching people’s behaviors.

So we fast forward to the here and now  with the coronavirus pandemic waging a nasty war against humanity.  All over social media we are finding videos and articles on how to properly wash our hands. While this activity should be ingrained for anyone past grammar school, often it is not.   In the current health crisis hand washing is an action that might just save your life or the life of someone near to you. I know I am feeling a bit like Melvin Udall right now as I have stepped up my already robust hand washing game… and that is a good thing.

I am hoping we all go to the Melvin Zone and wash our hands adequately for a long while.

Here is a link to a blog article I put there in 2016: Public Service Announcement – Hand Washing from CDC

Just as an interesting aside the hand washing article has been getting a fair number of hits the last few weeks.

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