DEAR SEAN:
All my friends have the flu, I’m seeing all this bad stuff online, and I’m worried because of it. If my friends have the flu, then that means I’m next. I got a flu shot, but I keep hearing bad things, and I’m really scared.
What should I do?
FOURTEEN-IN-BIRMINGHAM
DEAR FOURTEEN:
You’re not alone here. As much as I’d like to claim to be Captain Fearless, I’ve been washing my hands so often my knuckles are hairless.
But, before we go any further, first, we’re going to take a deep breath. Ready. Go.
Now, hold it. Hold it. Hold it.
Let it go.
Feel that? That total-body feeling? You know what that is? That’s us NOT having the flu.
Okay. Now, let’s turn off TV’s, computers, phones, and avoid internet headlines in all caps like:
“THE WORST FLU IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND, CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS.”
Let’s go talk to Granny instead.
Granny will put our minds at ease by telling us that sickness like this is
nothing new in history.
Case and point: before the Civil War, a worldwide bubonic plague broke out. They called it “black death.” It made today's flu look like a day in Aruba.
Then there was the influenza pandemic of 1889. Nearly 1 million died. That was no picnic.
And I’m just skimming the surface. There’s a long list of adversities our ancestors fought. Yellow fever, smallpox, the Great Depression, World War II, gasoline shortages, Windows 98, and Barry Manilow.
Let’s start with the Depression. It was the end of the world for many people. Families without water, food, toilet, living in tents, picking cotton for pennies, dying from malnutrition.
Next, we’ll ask Granny about World War II. 80 million died during those hellish years. Let that number sink in.
Maybe Granny will tell us about boys like,…