“I don’t wanna go to the wedding! I hate these people!” a reader whines to an advice columnist. “Should I pretend to have Covid?”
That strikes me as, um, uncouth as well as dishonest, but – as I was taught in eighth-grade charm class – “manners is simply consideration for others.”
If you have Covid, I think it’s pretty rude to go to a wedding. (The term “spreader event” also strikes me as quite gauche.)
Often the polite path means telling a lie, and the current historical moment provides so many opportunities. George Washington, who famously said “I cannot tell a lie,” is definitely rolling over. But he probably lied about his wooden teeth (“Nah, they don’t hurt. I’m good.”).
He probably waffled about religion, since most of the founding fathers were deists (semi-atheists). If anyone said “I’ll pray for you,” George Washington probably pretended not to hear them. Or smiled wanly.
He also lived through an epidemic. In his glory days, 1775-1794, over 100,00 people died of smallpox. Tourist spots today still claim “George Washington Slept Here.”
I’ll bet he didn’t.
