Where is the Golden Rule?

February 5, 2016 by jillpurdy 1 Comment

My present situation presents me with lots of opportunities to observe people. I’ve described some of these situations. Today I have another.

I’ve been wondering just what people are thinking for a while. The last few days have just elevated these thoughts to a new high.

It’s simple really. But for some reason some people just miss it or ignore it.

Flushing. It’s not difficult. The handle isn’t hidden. And if you use the manual version, you’re going to wash your hands anyway so go ahead and touch the handle and flush the toilet. If you’re really paranoid, take a towel or tissue from your purse and touch the handle using it as protection. And if you don’t wash your hands as part of your bathroom process, then stop reading this blog because I probably going to insult you.

Let me back up.

There are things more disgusting than stepping into a bathroom stall that hasn’t been flushed but this (depending on contents) can rank right up there. And it’s so unnecessary. I’m not sure what the stats are, but I would imagine that if you add up all of the publicly accessible toilets – just in Charlotte, let’s say – the percentage of them that are not flushable is probably fairly low. We do run across them – even among the more modern and more sanitary auto-flush ones – but I would venture to guess that most of the stalls we step into have functional toilets in them.

And during the first 2 days of this week, I stepped into stalls where the user preceding me had failed to flush – or to make sure that the toilet flushed.  This is a pet peeve of mine. Maybe I’m just weird or maybe it’s my OCD showing. Or both.

Maybe these unrefined folks just assume every toilet is an auto-flush type.

Maybe they think they’re above the act of flushing.

Maybe they’re just extremely rude and a bit gross.

Do you suppose they flush at home?

Do you supposed that if I were at there house and used their toilet – and didn’t flush – they would think I was rude?

Probably. So why the difference when in public?

I suppose I just think we should all have common courtesies. That we should pretty much act when we’re out like we do at home. (of course, I cannot account for people who are pigs at home too) Pardon me if this offends you, but it’s the way I was raised.

I’m the one who flushes toilets in other stalls and wipes the excess water off of the sink in the public restroom so the next person won’t drag their sleeve in my wet mess. After all, I hate it when I happen upon these things.

And I suppose that is what this is all about. Common courtesy. The Golden Rule. If we could all just do as we would like others to do to us…

It’s pretty simple, but it makes judgement calls easy and solves just about every problem imaginable. Sure – just do it. But just do it like you’d want it done to you.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place?