Playing in a Park
Harry was sitting in a park. He was watching the children play and run around. Parents were either chasing after children – or letting them run amok.
The mixture of what was considered proper clothing was amusing to him.
Some looked to be wearing jeans and t-shirts, some were in loud colors, and some were far more outlandish. The 1980s in the colonies were an eclectic time. His leather jacket and jeans hardly merited a comment.
A woman with three children entered the park. They approached the bench Harry was sitting on and the woman sat down. The oldest boy ran off to play with a group of children near his age. The girl, a very pretty one, ran off and started playing with children her age. And the youngest boy sat next to his mother and just watched.
"Come on, Shelly. You should go and play as well" She paused. "Don't play in the dirt though. There are a lot of germs," kind of annoyed Harry.
He said out loud, "And that's a good reason for him to play in it."
The woman looked over at the man on the bench with some disdain. However, his accent sounded educated and fancy and so she didn't immediately make a snarky comment back.
The boy, who was five years old, had a genius level intellect. He had seen Professor Proton on the television and found that science was fascinating. So, he asked the question that occurred to him. "Why would it be good to have germs?"
Mary Cooper was interested in the answer, so didn't tell her son to be quiet.
"Well, the world is covered in germs. Some are bad, some are good, but most are quite weak. By coming into contact with germs, your body learns to fight them. So, when your body comes into contact with stronger and more dangerous germs the little parts of your blood which fight off germs are much stronger." He nodded toward the oldest boy, who was playing football with others his age. "Your brother is pretty strong, right?"
Sheldon nodded solemnly. George could – and did – use his physical prowess (Sheldon learned that phrase from a book) to dominate (another word from a book) at home.
"Well, one reason he's strong is because he's using his body while playing. The human body will become stronger by using it. That includes the little parts of you that fight germs. If you avoid all germs, your body won't know how to fight them at all. And so if some attack you, you'll get sicker. It's smart to avoid diseases and things that could really make you sick, but avoiding all germs is kind of silly. There are just too many."
He looked over and the woman looked like she was evaluating what he was saying. The boy looked like he was thinking – and comprehending. He grinned at the little boy as he said, "Just make sure you wash up after you play in the dirt. Just because you don't have to be scared of all germs doesn't mean you have to be silly enough to carry extras when you don't need to."
Harry stood up. "So, young man, enjoy playing in the dirt on occasion. Life is too short to not have fun or to be scared all of the time." He turned his head and nodded at the woman. "Ma'am." He then turned and walked away toward the trees.
The woman and boy watched the man walk away. They then looked at the park with what the man said percolating in their mind. Both missed the man disappear in a ball of blue light. When they looked back, the man was gone.
Sheldon cautiously took the man's advice. He walked over to a sandbox and sat down in it. He began playing in the sand.
While Sheldon Cooper grew up to be a world class scientist and somewhat socially inept, he was remarkably sanguine about human contact, bugs, and germs and had much fewer hang ups than most of his type were wont to have.
So, when Rajesh and Wolowitz set him up on a date with Amy Farrah Fowler through an online dating site, there was much less drama than would otherwise have occurred.
Within nine months, through Amy's persistence, the relationship actually became physical. While he found the activity somewhat messy and disorganized, it wasn't so messy that it was off-putting. He still only did these things on a strict schedule, though.
Penny, Leonard, Rajesh, Howard, and Bernadette learned not to ask too many questions as neither Amy nor Sheldon had much of a filter and they really didn't need to know those things.