One of my biggest pet peeves year round, and particularly during flu season, is people coughing without covering their mouths.
In most cases I doubt this intentional — we simply forget, or we don’t think about it.
To that end, I remain convinced that if the air around us were to become purple every time we cough — or frankly any color other than clear — we’d all be substantially better about protecting others from our germs.
The more salient the problem, the more likely we are to do something about it.
In separate matter dealing with the same predicament, my Home Owner’s Association failed to reach the required number votes yesterday to make key decisions for the upcoming year which means the committee will have to convene again.
Each committee meeting costs money, which means negligence has a price.
Like with the coughing, I’m doubtful that anyone is actively trying to be negligent. More likely, the matter simply isn’t clear enough to be top of mind. If future messages articulated the stakes — like each committee meeting costs residents $25 — I have to believe the problem would become obvious enough, purple enough, that we’d reach the required number of votes faster.
If action on your part or the part of others is not rising to meet the needs of a problem, it might be because no one can see it clearly enough to remember to do anything about it.
You have to make the problem purple.
