As I am recovering from a stomach bug from the last couple of days, I found an interesting article in the NYT about Mary Mallon - otherwise known as Typhoid Mary. She was sentenced to live on a desolate spit of an island in the middle of NY harbor called North Brother Island - “a ramshackle Alcatraz” as described by one author. Sounds like a lovely vacation destination.

Typhoid Mary was sent to live her remaining life in the tiny hospital occupying the island -

Not after the first offense...

Not after the second offense...

But for the third offense of spreading the disease amongst the general population.

She was forcibly sent there because officials concluded she was a live healthy carrier of the dreaded typhoid bacteria; and because she worked as a cook, was infecting every family she went to work for. Officials finally concluded she could not live among the general population anymore, and sentenced her to live out her days in isolation and exile on North Brother Island.

When they did an autopsy, they discovered she had live typhoid bacteria in her system, received probably in utero when her mother contracted it and survived, which gave her the antibodies to combat it.

It astounded me that this woman had three tries to start an epidemic, which finally landed her in exile on this tiny lonely piece of land.

So besides being fascinated with virology, my mind went in a different direction. It begged a question in me for all of us:

What are you spreading?

Every one of us is passing on or giving away bits of ourselves as we interact with others and go through the day. We ‘ooze’ or ‘leak’ something about us – a pleasant smile and warm personality, a cranky attitude, a nervousness or anxiety about some potential crisis. We send signals to others through our words as well as our non-verbal body language.

So what are you leaking? What are you spreading? What remains after you depart?

The apostle Paul used the imagery of smell when he called us “the fragrance of Christ.” He said in 2 Corinthians 2:15 that “Our lives are a fragrance presented by Christ to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those being saved and by those perishing. To those who are perishing we are a fearful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved we are a life-giving perfume.”

After we leave the scene, there should be a lingering odor of our presence. What would that be?

Is what you’re feeling infectious to others? Is your mood and your countenance contagious? Should it be?

Paul asked a great question after his statement: “And who is adequate for such a task as this?” He knew it was not because he ginned up something fabulous, or manufactured a great smile, that made the difference with people. For Paul, it was the reality of Jesus in his life that compelled him to smile, to love, to be the kind of person that leaked joy and strength, that was contagious and unable to be held in, that would spread on its own simply because it was not something that could be locked away or contained.

May we be infectious people of love and joy because of the realized reality of Jesus in our souls.