Ode on the Loo

My toilet at home is this weird shade of pink -- after all it's the original toilet from a house that was built in the 1950's.  Since I've lived in this same house for over 23 years now, many hours of my time have been spent on that pink throne.  Last week I spent quite a few hours with what my friend Ima's family calls "technical difficulties."  In my family it's usually known as diarrhea.

Since I was there for so much time, I got to thinking about the subject of where people do their "business." I have used facilities all over the world and been amazed, amused, challenged, and a few other things at the experience.  First, I learned to carry T.P. with me all the time.  Some places don't provide any at all in public facilities, whereas others -- like in Paris -- have this pink, rough, hard paper that was not very pleasant.  Actually, my hotel in Paris even had that pink paper.  In China I took a roll of T.P. with me in my suitcase.  Each day as I left my hotel I would estimate how many times I would be going to the bathroom, then roll off the number of squares for each trip, tear it off, fold it neatly, and put them in an accessible place in my purse where they could also be kept clean.

Second, there are the types of facilities.  In China and other parts of Asia the toilets are holes built into the floor.  The method one uses is to squat then relieve one's self.   There is a device, either a pedal or lever, that is pushed with the foot that flushes the toilet.  Those toilets are certainly easier to clean than Western-style toilets!  After a while you get pretty good thigh muscles built up -- no lingering to do the crossword puzzle, for sure.

In Africa the bathrooms in the hotels where I stayed had beautiful facilities. We traveled all over the countryside though, and visited some very remote areas.  At one place the Western-style toilet had to be flushed in a little different method.  There was a large garbage can filled with clean water.  When finished, you took a pitcher or two of clean water and emptied it into the toilet bowl so that it "flushed" the materials through the system, leaving clean water behind.  Of course on some of the bus rides we were simply too far from anywhere to have a bathroom.  We just made do on the side of the road.  One of my favorite pictures is that of a hand, holding on to a rock.  That's all you can see.  That's because we were down below on the side of the hill and holding on to the rocks for balance.

So it doesn't matter whether it is called a water closet, head, latrine, lavatory, toilette, loo, rest room, bathroom or something else -- it's still a very important place for business. 

And I realized how very grateful I was to have one that was comfortable -- with soft, durable T.P.  And that I can spend all the time I want working my crossword puzzle, sudoku, reading, or whatever.  Gratitude, indeed.