Define "Clean"

Today I feel sick in a healthy sort of way. I can tell that a microbe war is going on in my stomach, yet I have no fever, no energy loss, no bowel problems. Probably the swamp I visited yesterday gave my immune system a chance to get up and fight. Different cultures have differing ideas on what "clean" and "dirty" are. To some, floors are "clean", so shoes must be removed. Americans who do not know me well may balk at the idea that I am an meticulously "clean" person, yet based on the germ theory of disease transmission I certainly am. You may have noticed the breakfast stains on my wrinkled clothes, my unwashed car full of the kids' candy wrappers, lots of things that in the USA mean "dirty" but that do not often transmit disease; these have never been important to me. Yet I am a frequent and thorough hand washer, my teeth get flossed after brushing and my tongue gets scraped - several times a day now that I am a ripe candidate for microbe attacks. Germs have a hard time doing their exponential growth thing in my biosystem. No hygiene habit changes are necessary for me to live in the third world. My American opposites are the "double breasted" types; you've seen them in the bathrooms of the USA. They spend a great deal of time adjusting their clothing in front of the mirror, yet walk out after only a ceremonial dampening of the hands (usually after they've put those hands all over their clothes). How can you live like that without getting sick (We ask ourselves silently as we look at each other)? My cleanliness is partly why the School District of Philadelphia now owes me back pay for so many sick days I never took. It could be partly why the short termers around me are routinely in bed with the K-Town crud, while I have been up and about each day, dirty shoes on my feet and a freshly scraped tongue in my mouth (never touch the tongue of a person with clean shoes). Microbe attacks have to go elsewhere to grow exponentially so I just get a little sick; no energy loss. Maybe I'll go running tomorrow morning. Or maybe I speak too soon, I've been here not quite a week.