Part of the world we live in currently is an increased awareness of everything to do with health and the prevention of the spread of COVID 19. Stuff that would have seemed pulled from science fiction a year ago is common place; masks, social distancing, etc. One wrinkle is having my temperature taken each time I enter our school as a spike is, as I understand it, a symptom of the virus. Trinka Sandahl, who has worked at WCS longer than anyone, takes mine with a device that looks like a mini radar gun used to gauge pitch velocity in baseball. Here is what's interesting. I've only been above 98.0 twice and that's in the afternoon after riding to our campus in the summer heat in my car where the AC is not working well. I'm tested every weekday morning AFTER I've worked out for at least an hour and I'm always around 97.2. What gives? Am I some freak of nature? Give me 98.6 or give me...... well, I'm not sure.
One of the great songs that sometimes shows up on the oldies stations is 98.6 which rose to # 7 on the Billboard charts in 1966. The artist was a 17 year old named Keith (real name James Barry Keefer) who never had that big of a hit again. It was a pleasant love song, the gist of which was his life was back to normal (98.6) because of his girl friend. The tie-in to normalcy, of course, was the typical healthy, not afflicted, temperature of the testee. Back when Keith sang his signature tune, thermometers were less accurate, I'm assuming, and harder to read. Besides, the best temperature read-out ever was your mom putting her hand on your forehead and proclaiming, 'you're OK.' Moms always know.
So, are we colder than we used to be or is it just me? Has living indoors made us healthier than when the standard was determined? The average or normal temperature was set roughly one hundred fifty years ago by a German doctor, Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich, who used a foot long device which took twenty minutes to determine readings. There seems to be solid evidence that people are cooler for a variety of reasons. including living in air conditioning! Other factors might be lesser amounts of inflammation and Tuberculosis as well as that we are generally healthier than our ancestors. (In fact, there was a blurb about a nation which still struggles with TB having an average temp around 98.6.) Is a lower temperature a good thing, a bad thing, or just a redefinition of a norm we've always accepted? I'm no doctor so I'll pass on that question.
My guess is that we constantly evaluate standards in society and the standards seems to almost always be lowered. Is our society more polite than in the past, or less? Tommy Owen, a well-known high school football coach in Nashville, addressed the phenomenon of making a big deal anytime a teen says Yes, sir and No, sir: "When what used to be average is considered exceptional, we are in trouble." Are we kinder or less kind as a culture than we used to be? I think the advent of social media and the ability to be connected to thousands at once has made us ruder and less sensitive to others' points of view as well as their plights. We actually rejoice when there is some act of kindness that shows up in a Facebook video as if we believe we are incapable as a group of any real empathy. But here is the one thing that never changes and never will: God. The scriptures are full of examples of that truth. Here are two:
Malachi 3:6, NIV: "I the LORD do not change.
James 1:17, NIV: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
There are standards we can learn by studying the Word of God. His standards won't change due to prevailing societal checkpoints. What was true will remain true no matter how current thought tries to redefine truth. Do we care more about what Jesus says or what some celebrity or a friend tweets? I realize my body temperature may fluctuate throughout the day but my faith in our Lord and what He taught should not. I think Jesus called it building our house upon the rock. To listen to Keith sing 98.6, which might make you smile, click or copy/paste the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykN6Cz05bLM
Applicable quote of the day:
Your temperature's normal, though I'd say it's the only thing about you that is.
Anthony Horowitz
Applicable quote of the day, # 2:
Lily Munster: [Taking Marylin's temperature] "Oh! She has a fever: Ninety eight point six."
Marilyn Munster: "But, but isn't that normal, Aunt Lilly?"
Lily Munster: "Oh heavens, no. We Munsters average in the low fifties."
Steve
Luke 18:1
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