Flights

PURITY OF BLOOD

A certain island-dwelling woman from the other hemisphere, whom I met in a hotel in Prague, told me the following:

People have always slogged around with them millions of bacteria, viruses and diseases; there’s no way to stop it. But we can at least try. After the worldwide panic over mad cow disease some countries introduced new legislation. Any of the residents of her island who went away to Europe could no longer donate blood; it might be said that according to the law they suffered from lifelong contamination. And this would now be her case – she would never be able to give blood now. This was the price of her trip, not included in the cost of the ticket. Lost purity. Lost honour.

I asked her if it was worth it, if it made sense to sacrifice the purity of her blood for the pleasure of looking around a few cities, churches and museums.

She answered seriously that all things have a price.