Meditation on Toilets

Travel is relaxing and can drain stress if the pace of travel is reasonable. Travel can also be stimulating, exciting to our senses and to our sensibilities. If we’re lucky, travel can be both at the same time. We’ve been stimulated and we've noticed two interesting things about bathrooms here, things that ought to be interesting to our senators and representatives in Washington.

A US senator recently went on a rant to a representative of the EPA regarding the high efficiency toilets in his home. "Frankly, my toilets don't work in my house, and I blame you, and people like you," said the senator. Of course, the senator is not well informed. If his toilets don’t work, he has a problem with his plumber. The high efficiency toilets in our home work very well, much better than the toilets they replaced. (Note to Rand Paul. Call the people at Inland Plumbing Supply in Syracuse. If you’re polite, they’ll be able to help you out.)

Note to senator; large button on left,
small button on right, the rest is easy.

If the senator has a fixed, ideological view regarding toilets then I suggest foreign travel, perhaps to Italy. One of the interesting things about toilets here is they often have two buttons on the wall. One button is large, the other button is small. The large button produces a large flush, the small button produces a small flush. The choice is yours, no government official is involved. This level of simplicity might be attractive the the senator; it seems like a good idea to us. Why don’t we have this at home?

Another thing strikes us about public restrooms. At home a few places have water faucets that come on automatically when you break a light beam. This is good. Most places do not, however. The same is true here; only a few public rest rooms have automatic faucets. But many public restrooms here have sinks with foot pedals. Sometimes two foot pedals. One blue, one red. Low tech. Simple. Easy. And you have one less thing that you have to touch.

Travel opens the mind to new possibilities.