Men’s Room
Warning – includes bathroom humor and concepts…
When I was in college, I lived in a dorm. It was a coed dorm, meaning that each floor alternated males and females. The floor I lived on was actually in the basement.
Our shared bathroom had a six-nozzle, open shower stall, five urinals and five full stalls. I have three stories to share, which get progressively worse. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The first story involves the shower stall area. It was set up with a slightly raised middle platform with a step down to the shower nozzle area. Because we were college-age, we got a piece of plywood to block the entrance, then stopped up the drains to create an approximate 2-foot-deep splashing pool.
The second story involves the bathroom stalls. The whole floor contained maybe 20 guys in total, so, for the most part, going number two was a solo experience in terms of company. Without discussion amongst us, we all decided our favorite stall was the third one. (I have seen numerous studies of the guy stall selection process, so I know there is a clear mechanism for making this decision.) Unfortunately, during my freshman fall semester, one of the guys developed boils. (He moved out when it became clear the rest of us had figured it out.) By the time Christmas break rolled around, almost all of us had contracted boils and took them home to our families over the holiday. If you don’t know, boils are painful and slow to heal.
The last story involves the urinals. Our urinals were the type that a small pool of water remained after they were flushed. Because of this, it was apparent when the person before you had used the urinal and didn’t flush it. Suddenly, the floor was split into those who felt it was imperative to flush after use and those who didn’t. (I fell in the imperative-to-flush cohort.)
So much so, I became the spokesperson for flushing. I put up signs asking for a courtesy flush. That didn’t work. My next idea was to create little hangman’s nooses tied to the flushing handle. The sign explained that if you were having a hard time remembering to flush, you could lasso your member to help you remember.
Several of my fellow students thought the concept was inspired and, at least for several weeks, the visual reminder worked to encourage flushing. Eventually, most of the non-flushing cohort reverted to their original patterns, however.
You might ask what made me remember those days so long ago. Well, I needed to use the bathroom at church and saw this:
Because I’m a geek, my first thought was a Star Wars reference (stormtroopers can’t hit anything with their blasters), but then I remembered my experiences in the dorm. But, more importantly, I resolved to read the passage referenced.
“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” - 2 Corinthians 13:5, 7-14 ESV
I believe God not only created humor, but loves us to use it to make us happy (as long as we don’t use it to put someone else down). This was more clever than my hangman’s noose concept more than 40 years ago.
