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A message from Pastor Marty

Flu Season

By Pastor Peter W. Marty

Influenza is in high gear across the country at the moment. Doctors’ offices are jammed with the sick. It’s not an easy time for schools, families, and the elderly. So, what follows in the next few sentences here may seem on the edge of disgusting. But hang on for deeper meaning.

A decade ago, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University conducted an experiment where they sprayed cold virus samples into the nostrils of willing subjects. What would possess one to participate in this experiment, as opposed to, say, one where tasting different chocolate chip cookies was the model… I don’t know. Perhaps these gutsy volunteers were given a chocolate chip cookie as a Thank You. In any event, they offered their noses and bodies free of charge. The purpose of the study was to determine what role friendships and social networks play in combating sickness.

The findings were startling. Or, maybe not. Those individuals with many friends and large social networks were four times less likely to come down with sickness than those with fewer friends.

These results match what others have discovered about the substantial role that human community plays. According to one study, people over age 75 who lead relatively isolated lives and enjoy fewer friendships had a 60% higher than average chance of dementia. A 1987 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute report found that middle-aged women with large social networks were 25% below the national average for coronary artery disease. One could go on and on. The point is, even our bodies react positively to the idea of belonging to communities instead of merely to ourselves.

Personal happiness is connected directly to our levels of companionship. That’s the opinion of popular author Bill McKibben, with whom I spoke recently about this very subject. He asked the question out loud: “Why do so many people look back at college as the best years of their lives?” He then answered it: “It’s not because their classes were so outstanding. It is because they experienced close human community more than they ever had before that moment, and likely have ever since.”

You can grab any number of books with Happiness in the title — and they’re hot on the market at the moment — and you will read of the important role that social networks play. Richard Layard is one of these authors. He notes how primates behave communally. They live in groups. They do not fare well when separated. In one experiment, a monkey in sustained isolation from its peers continually pulled on a lever just to glimpse other monkeys, even though no reward was given aside from “the peek.”

We are not monkeys, but we crave a similar togetherness to theirs — at least in our better moments. We know that companionship and neighborliness are not only good for our bodies, but also for our souls, and for our world. Why else did Jesus strive so hard to put us in touch with other people? Why else was the love command for our neighbor elevated to the same status as our love for God? It is because we’re not only generating a better world through such love, we’re also gaining more personal fulfillment — more happiness.

Think back to the last time you volunteered with others. What was the fulfillment? “It got me outside of myself, and that was a joy.” “It broadened my perspective.” “It gave me a satisfaction that I could make a difference.” These are the lines that flow when companionship is in abundance and individualism is in scarcity.

So, if you want to escape the hellishness of the flu, and those chills, muscle aches, and fever that make death sound like welcome relief, consider a fresh plunge into some sort of volunteerism. Or do something that connects your life meaningfully with others. It seems counter-intuitive to hang around other people when there is a bug in the air. But it could help. After all, we’re God-wired for human community. Our very health and happiness depend on it.

Pastor Peter W. Marty,

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