I currently have no papers to write. I'm halfway through my superintendent certification (that Trey made me sign up for) and I'm done with classes until mid-January. No papers or discussion board posts for a month.
It seems I can't help myself from writing something anyway.
We were in a leadership meeting today at work, and our Director of Leadership did a little activity about Four Things Followers Need. We reflected on leaders who influence our behavior daily and wrote down four things that make us want to follow them. He encouraged us to think of one work person and one non-work person. My non-work person was my mom. I'm not sure I can remember all four things I wrote down, but it was along the lines of honest, acts with integrity, listens, and...something else. My work person was TP and I don't even care that it was a predictable answer from me. I wrote down passionate, knowledgeable, fun, and...something else. It was a powerful exercise!
Then our presenter revealed the "four things that followers need" and had us categorize the characteristics we had written down as one of the four things. And lo and behold they all fit. It's like he planned it!
The first one (at least I think it was the first one) was TRUST. Of course that immediately got me thinking about automatically flushing toilets.
In short, I don't trust 'em.
Not for a minute.
(In hindsight it's possible I may have a mild case of ADD, but I digress.)
Sometimes these "magic toilets" flush while you're still sitting on them. That's a unique experience at best and a shock at its worst. And if they're so dang automatically super smart, why are they flushing when I haven't even moved?
But what's worse is when you finish and dress and then wait silently for the auto-flusher to do its thing. And wait. And wait.
In a crowded bathroom you absolutely cannot leave the stall and hope it magically decides to flush before the next in a long line of women walks in. Because if it doesn't flush then YOU'RE the super gross non-flushing lady and everyone knows it. I mean, who doesn't flush? Toddlers and barn animals. That's it. Everyone else must ensure the entire transaction is complete every single time.
And so you MUST wait. Sometimes you have to almost hug the stall door so that it thinks you've left. Sometimes you have to wave your arms, but not so high that they go above the stall door because who wants to be the lady dancing in the bathroom stall?
Are these automatically flushing toilets really making our lives better? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no.
I'm also ready to publicly admit that I, SGH, after years of battling these modern conveniences, have determined to always find the button and flush it myself. This prevents me from being the super gross non-flushing lady and the disco-stall-dancing lady, and it's worth it to me. I am a button pusher, and I am not ashamed.
And I always vigorously wash my hands.
As a final note, in Mexico the "button" on the potties is actually a foot pedal. You step on it and never have to touch anything. If I ever pack up and move to Mexico people will think it's for the beaches or the serenity or the food.
But it will really be for the toilets.
PS - In case you're interested, the others of the four things followers need were stability, hope, and compassion.
